Mayor Wu Trounces Anti-Bike Challenger In Preliminary Election

Mayor Michelle Wu won a commanding victory in yesterday’s preliminary runoff election for this year’s mayoral race, winning three times as many votes as her nearest challenger, Josh Kraft, whose made his opposition to bike lanes a prominent theme of his campaign.

The results mean that Kraft and Wu, as the top two finishers in yesterday’s four-way race, will face off again on November 4.

In his stump speeches, Kraft claimed, without evidence, that the city’s limited number of bike lanes “increase congestion,” and pledged to “set a pause” on new bikeways.

But that message did not resonate with Boston’s voters.

Kraft received only 21,324 votes in yesterday’s election, just 23 percent of all votes in the race. Wu won 66,398 votes (72 percent).

Mayor Wu won more than three times as many votes as her challenger, in spite of the fact that Kraft, the son of billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, spent more than three times as much money on his campaign.

The majority of Kraft’s campaign budget – about $5.5 million – came from his his own family fortune. Wu, meanwhile, raised about $1.8 million for her re-election campaign, according to her campaign finance reports.

In a speech he delivered Tuesday night to a small crowd of supporters, after most of the results were in, Kraft promised “we’re gonna keep fighting… Let me be clear, we are still in this race.”

Kraft also talked about affordable housing, schools, and recovery services for residents struggling with substance use disorders. But his speech last night pointedly avoided mentioning bike lanes.

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