Josh Kraft is moving on to Boston’s municipal election for mayor in November, but the son of New England Patriots and Revolution owner Robert Kraft spent a significant amount of money for a distant second place in Tuesday’s preliminary round to get there.
All mayoral candidates, regardless of party, faced off in the single preliminary election that narrowed the field to two. The Associated Press almost immediately called the advancing candidates as incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu and Kraft, with Wu earning 65% of the vote and Kraft earning 30% after 14% of the ballots were counted.
Kraft, the president of the New England Patriots Foundation, has raised $6.8 million for his campaign through August, spending $5.5 million while having $1.3 million cash on hand, according to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
Much of the funding comes from the super PAC Your City, Your Future, which has solicited $1 million donations from New Balance chairman Jim Davis and Fanatics founder Michael Rubin. Fenway Sports Group president Michael Gordon donated $100,000, while Jimmy and Dee Haslam, owners of the Cleveland Browns and Columbus Crew, donated $50,000 each.
Kraft’s funds have been spent on media advertisements, research and consulting, staffing and campaign events. In July and August, the campaign spent $2.18 million with Technicolor Political, a communications firm that produces multimedia ad campaigns for Democratic candidates. Kraft also spent $382,224 with Mission Control, a Democrat-focused direct mail firm.
Kraft personally deposited $5.5 million into the campaign’s coffers—a $2 million drop on May 6 and a $3.5 million deposit on Aug. 6. To combat calls to release his full tax returns, Kraft instead released a summary of his income, showing that he made $6.4 million in 2023 and $6.3 million in 2024.
Kraft’s spending has shattered previous records for a Boston mayoral campaign set by former Mayor Marty Walsh, now the executive director of the NHLPA, who raised $3 million in his successful 2013 bid for the city’s top office. An April report in the Boston Herald said Walsh was “an informal advisor” to Kraft’s campaign but has not formally endorsed a candidate.
In contrast, Wu, the first woman and Asian person elected to City Hall, raised $1.8 million since the start of the year and spent $1.1 million. She has more than $2.4 million cash on hand, having raised funds for a reelection bid since 2022.
Wu has been a vocal opponent to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and the waves of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests in the city that have rattled some residents. Wu has also called out Robert Kraft’s relationship with the Republican president, while Josh has played down that connection.
Aside from the Trump factor, sports have been central in endorsements and debates between the candidates.
On Monday, hospitality workers union Unite Here Local 26 also endorsed Wu and several other progressive candidates for local office. Its members include around 1,000 Fenway Park employees who have been in a protracted labor dispute with Aramark since June.
In May, Wu was endorsed by an adopted son of the city, Red Sox legend David Ortiz. In addition to a social media post that borrowed from Ortiz’s famous speech in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, the Hall of Famer held a rally with the mayor at Fenway Park to drum up support for her campaign.
Wu and Kraft have sparred over a field of play this year: White Stadium, the future home of the NWSL expansion franchise Boston Legacy FC. The original city-owned venue was recently torn down to make room for a new 11,000-seat open-air stadium that will be shared by both the team and Boston Public Schools. Wu has been a major supporter of the project, as the city is reportedly contributing $90 million toward its development.
Kraft has opposed the stadium, claiming that Boston’s financial package is almost double at $170 million. He said he would cancel the project if elected and work with a conservancy group to erect its own green space and high school stadium. Due to delays on the White Stadium project, Boston Legacy will spend its inaugural season at Gillette Stadium, the Patriots and Revolution’s home that’s owned by the Kraft Group.
In the meantime, Wu has criticized the Kraft family’s plans for a new soccer-specific stadium for the Revolution in Everett, Mass. Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood sits next door right over the Mystic River, and she raised concerns about traffic going through the area. She also called out a relatively small mitigation package of $750,000 to the city should the stadium get full approval.
The top two vote-earners will move onto the municipal election, which culminates on Nov. 4. (Early voting runs from Oct. 25 – Oct. 31.) No incumbent mayor in Boston has lost a reelection bid since 1949.