Rep. Stephen Lynch gives Mayor Wu a 'B' for her first term

Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald on Apr 27, 2025

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U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch expressed measured support for Mayor Michelle Wu’s reelection in a TV interview Sunday, but said they have “work to do” together.

“I just wish my office and her administration could work better together,” Lynch said on WBZ’s Keller at Large segment Sunday when asked if the mayor deserves a second term.

“We seem to be as loggerheads on some things, and that’s why I have to give her a B at this point.”

Mayor Michelle Wu officially launched her campaign for reelection in March. The incumbent currently faces Josh Kraft, billionaire son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and head of Kraft Family Philanthropies; community activist Domingos DaRosa; and City Hall employee Kerry Augustin.

Of the reelection, Lynch said Sunday he gives Wu some “credit,” highlighting the testimony she was called to give in front of the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on sanctuary cities in early March. Lynch is a member of the House committee, and during her testimony, Wu called Boston the “safest major city” and pushed back on federal officials claims about immigration policies.

“Some of the things she’s struggling with are not of her making, the economy, things like that,” Lynch said. “But I give her an ‘A’ for effort. And she did nobly and proudly down in Congress in terms of her testimony before Congress in a hostile environment. I give her great credit on that.”

The Congressman, representing Boston within the 8th district of Massachusetts, did not directly answer whether Wu deserves a second term but spoke generally favorably of the mayor.

“Let’s put it this way: I think she’ll do much better job than her opponent, going forward,” said Lynch. “I really do believe that. But we have work to do. We have work to do.”

Lynch also spoke on the ICE arrest and detention of the Turkish PhD at Tufts, Rumeysa Ozturk. Ozturk, who co-authored a pro-Palestinian op-ed last year, was taken by ICE in March and has been detained in Louisiana for about a month.

“She’s a Fulbright Scholar,” said Lynch. “She’s here with a with a valid visa. She is a legal resident here in the United States to take advantage of our marvelous Tufts University. If we start snatching kids off the street and putting them in detention centers, shipping them 1,700 miles to Louisiana, if that’s the way you’re going to treat kids who come here, our reputation will suffer greatly.”

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