Boston City Council will have few new faces in the upcoming term, as incumbents in almost every race appeared poised to win reelection late Tuesday night.
City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune came out on the top of the ticket, following her win in the September preliminary election, taking home more than 50,000 votes, Mayor Michelle Wu said during an election night party at Grace by Nia in the Seaport.
“It’s a resounding endorsement that Boston is moving forward and in the right direction,” Louijeune said of the win.
“When the federal government and when this president is failing us, which is showing every day that his mission is actually not for the American people, but actually to just distract us from the important task at hand,” she added. “We won’t allow them to do that because we’re better than that.”
Incumbents Julia Mejia, Erin Murphy and Henry Santana also seemed likely to win reelection, according to unofficial tallies late Tuesday.
Though full results were not yet publicly available, Wu said that Santana, largely considered the most vulnerable incumbent on the council, had held onto his seat “by a landslide.”
“Henry, you have proven once again that Boston will not be bullied or bought,” the mayor said. “No matter how hard some try to fearmonger or drag us backward, Boston just keeps marching forward.”
Santana, the newest councilor-at-large, initially failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, before Wu’s campaign stepped in at the last minute to help.
While still placing in the top four in September, Santana came in more than 8,000 votes behind Murphy, and a little over 4,000 ahead of former District 3 Councilor Frank Baker, according to unofficial tallies.
But as he told supporters Tuesday night, “sometimes the underdog prevails.” He dedicated his win to his mother, who is battling cancer, in a tearful speech.
“We were outspent at every stage of this campaign, but we showed the people of Boston again tonight that Boston cannot be bought,” he said.
As one of the mayor’s strongest allies on the council, Santana’s win spells good news for Wu, who also won reelection Tuesday. Baker, on the other hand, has been a frequent critic of Wu and was typically one of the most conservative voices on the council during his time in office.
At Florian Hall in Dorchester, Baker greeted dozens of lively supporters about an hour after polls closed. While he warned that results may not be known for hours, Baker thanked the group, told them he was proud of their efforts and said that there was “real honor in a job well done.”
“The city is out of balance,” Baker said afterward. “It’s not good for the city council to be a rubber stamp, and it’s not everyone, but it’s not good.”
Much has changed, on the city council and in the city, in the two short years he was away from public office, Baker acknowledged. If elected, he said he planned to listen and keep an open mind on the issues that came before the body.
The area of South Dorchester surrounding Florian Hall is Baker country. In the two precincts that voted earlier in the day in the room next door to the party, Baker’s name was on 653 of the 766 ballots cast.
Baker is the “most honest and forthright person,” said Chi McCormack, who has known the former councilor from around Savin Hill for 26 years. “He really believes in being a public servant.”
“He picks up the phone when you call,” said state Sen. Nick Collins, D-1st Suffolk. “He gets things done, gets the hard things done, the small things done.”
“Frank gets in the community. He gets out there and he talks to the people. But more important, he listens to the people,” said Gina Sullivan, of Dorchester, who met Baker in grade school.
Wu took nearly all votes in an uncontested general election that was effectively decided two months ago when her top challenger, Josh Kraft, dropped out of the race. With her reelection all but assured, Wu had instead devoted her campaign energy to electing allies to the council, including Santana.
She said she voted for three candidates in the at-large council race’s preliminary election: Louijeune, Santana and Alexandra Valdez, according to The Boston Globe.
The super PAC Bold Boston, which supported her in September, also transferred $125,000 to a new super PAC, Boston Voice, to pay for mailers in support of Santana, according to MASSterlist.
District 7 race too close to call late Tuesday
In the only open Council race, pastor and former federal housing official Miniard Culpepper declared victory over youth track coach Said Ahmed to become the next District 7 councilor, according to the Boston Globe.
“This hasn’t really been a political campaign — this has really been a community campaign, where community folks came together across the board, from the South End to Roxbury to Fenway to Dorchester,” he told supporters at an event in Roxbury, the Globe reported.
Ahmed, however, did not immediately concede Tuesday night, according to the newspaper.
Culpepper had a slight lead over Ahmed in unofficial tallies posted on the city website as of 11:30 p.m.
The winner of the race will replace former District 7 Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, who was convicted this year on federal corruption charges and is currently serving a one-month sentence.
In the September preliminary election, 13 candidates for the District 7 seat made for an incredibly close race. Ahmed ultimately came out on top with 1,170 votes, just 58 more than Culpepper, who in turn had just 25 more votes than the next runner-up.
Ahmed, commonly known as “Coach,” is a former refugee from Somalia who came to the United States at 12 years old, according to his campaign bio.
He attended Boston Public Schools, where he became a national track champion, and continued in track and field during and after college. He later worked for Boston Public Schools for 15 years and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in governance and development.
Culpepper grew up in Dorchester, where his grandparents were the first Black family to buy a house on their street, according to his website.
After college, he attended Howard Divinity School and Suffolk University Law School, then worked as an attorney. Much of his work has focused on housing at the national and local levels, including promoting civil rights protections in Boston’s public housing.
Other district races
For the remaining City Council seats representing individual districts, incumbent councilors seemed ready to dominate the results in preliminary counts Tuesday night.
District 1 Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, District 2 Councilor Ed Flynn, District 4 Councilor Brian Worrell, District 5 Councilor Enrique Pepén, District 6 Councilor Ben Weber and District 9 Councilor Liz Breadon all led their opponents as of 11:30 p.m.
District 3 Councilor John Fitzgerald and District 8 Councilor Sharon Durkan both ran unopposed for reelection this year.
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