Josh Kraft, a political newcomer and a son of the New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, ended his run for mayor of Boston on Thursday, two days after Mayor Michelle Wu trounced him in the preliminary election.
Mr. Kraft said in a letter to supporters that he was listening to voters and opting “not to get caught up in more political mudslinging but rather to drive the conversation forward in a meaningful way.”
The contest between the two Democrats had been combative, with Mr. Kraft harshly criticizing the mayor for policies that he said showed her disconnection from voters and her failure to listen to their concerns. But his campaign message did not resonate with voters, who overwhelmingly chose Ms. Wu over Mr. Kraft, 72 percent to 23 percent, on Tuesday, though he would have still advanced to face her in the general election in November.
Ms. Wu, who in 2021 became the first woman and the first person of color elected mayor of Boston, thanked Mr. Kraft in a statement “for caring about our city deeply enough to want to make it better.”
Boston holds a nonpartisan preliminary election instead of party primaries, with the goal of winnowing the field of candidates to two; a total of four names were on Tuesday’s mayoral ballot. It was not immediately clear on Thursday whether Mr. Kraft’s name would still appear on the November ballot or would be replaced by that of the third-place finisher, Domingos DaRosa, who received 2.6 percent of the vote.
Support for Ms. Wu has surged since January, according to recent polling, a change that some analysts attribute to her defiance toward the Trump administration. The Justice Department sued Boston last week over its ordinance that limits the role of local officials in helping federal agents detain or deport undocumented immigrants based on civil warrants.
Mr. Trump is deeply unpopular in Boston, where Vice President Kamala Harris won 77 percent of the vote last November.
Mr. Kraft, 58, had stepped up his criticism of the Trump administration in recent weeks, but he might have been hurt by some voters’ lingering distaste for the friendship his father maintained with Mr. Trump during the president’s first term.
Ms. Wu, 40, had accused Mr. Kraft, who spent more than $5 million of his own money on his campaign, of trying to “buy” the election.
Mr. Kraft, who previously ran the Patriots’ philanthropic foundation and worked for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston for 30 years, announced on Thursday that he would donate $3 million he had previously planned to spend on the race to nonprofit organizations working to address homelessness and substance abuse in the city.
“Public service is a part of who I am,” he wrote, “and I will never stop pushing for solutions that make this city safer, fairer and stronger.”
Jenna Russell is the lead reporter covering New England for The Times. She is based near Boston.
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