By Frank Conte
Early in his campaign the former social worker and former president of the Urban League makes his debut in East Boston one of the most politically active neighborhoods.
Three weeks after the announcement of his mayoral campaign, Josh Kraft introduced himself to a standing-room-only crowd of East Boston residents many who sense the current city administration is adrift. The attendees represented all the East Boston neighborhoods from Jeffries Point to Orient Heights and jobs, taxes, transportation and schools were among the issues they raised face to face with the mayoral challenger
“I’m touched by everybody being here,” he told the audience at the Hilton Garden Inn on Boardman Street. “It’s just awesome and overwhelming when I watch it, looking at it now, I swear it’s …. it’s bigger than when [we] announced. I think that this is a bigger crowd. I am so grateful. “
This was not a quick hit and run campaign stop. It was the political equivalent of a job interview. Kraft made his own name and brand outside that of his famous family. He chose a different path: social work in the toughest neighborhoods. His perspective wasn’t determined what happens between the uprights at Gillette Stadium but on the streets of Chelsea and Roxbury. His playbook was different and it was applied in various boardrooms — those of nonprofits tackling the most persistent problems facing down-and-out people. His career is marked by working with people face to face with many stories.
A particular story moved him, he recalled. As a 25-year-old he started as an intern at a methadone clinic in Somerville hoping to get people off of opiates. He did simple things like help his clients write a resume or get a job.
“One day, a guy came up to me, a guy named Bobby, who was struggling with heroin, trying to get off heroin and he was also HIV-positive. And he said ‘Hey, Josh, can you help me with something?’ So, I’m figuring it’s an application or a resume. So, I said, ‘Yeah, sure, Bobby, what can I help you with?’ And he asked me if I would teach him how to read. This is guy in his mid-30s. So of course, I did my best for the rest of that four, five months that I was there to teach him how to read.”
And looking back, people might say, ‘That’s so great. You taught that guy how to read.’ I said, ‘No, no, he taught me something much more valuable, the power of resilience, the power of dignity and the power of courage. So that’s why I’ve always learned you listen to everybody, because everybody can teach you something.”
Kraft expects to bring such insight into the corner office. “The only way to make big things happen, and the only way to get through challenges is to bring people together, even if they disagree with you or disagree with one another.”
Kraft recalled another breakthrough event in his career. In Mattapan, someone angry about the lack of local labor on a proposed project. Kraft met the challenge. “We talked. We started meeting. The end result is, when we built the $5 million teen center, 70% of the labor came from Dorchester, Roxbury in Mattapan.”
Kraft outlined his approach to governing. “We need a city government that does two things. [One that] doesn’t just listen to people, but hears people. It hears their concerns and their hopes and their opportunities that they hope for, as well as what their challenges are.”
And, in addition, we need a city government that brings people together, even people that disagree with each other or might disagree with the mayor, to move the city forward and to get through challenges and to create great opportunities for everybody in the city.
In his address, Kraft took aim at the Wu administration
Kraft has been especially critical of a plan to renovate White Stadium to accommodate a prospective professional women’s soccer team. The plan has drawn the ire of local residents who are taking the Wu administration to court. Kraft this week called for an independent probe into whether Wu violated procurement laws.
“We have in a mayor and administration that does not like differing opinions, and they don’t always hear people. In fact, you could say they’re working in an echo chamber at City Hall, and they only hear their own voices. The greatest example of that is a budget that has no money that can be cut for savings of 20 percent the budget has grown 20% in the three years since this administration’s been in office, and you can’t tell me there isn’t some money to be saved or cut to reduce the budget and make the burden of tough economic times fall on everybody.”
Even as she approached the state legislature to shift more taxes to the business sector, Wu has refused to cut city budgets that have grown faster than the rate of inflation. Her initial plan even failed to garner support from Boston legislators.
On housing, Kraft believes there are 26,000 potential units that are on the sideline that he can get moving. He’s also proposed a voluntary rent control program aligned with tax credits for landlords and a rental assistance program.
On education, Kraft contends that “families have completely lost confidence in the Boston Public Schools.” His novel plan calls for the adding elected members to the currently appointed members of school committee. He thinks more voices will bring greater accountability to students and parents.
When it comes to traffic and transportation, significant issues in East Boston, Kraft is especially critical. “We know the roads are congested. We know traffic and turning and moving around has gotten a lot harder. Lately, and there’s been a proliferation of bike and bus lanes. We will pause the installation of all new bike lanes when we come into office.”
Throughout his speech, Kraft name-checked the late Thomas Menino, suggesting a return to basics rather than grand progressive visions. Toward the end of his talk, Kraft introduced his campaign advisor, Michael Kineavey who spent more than 20 years in the trenches with the urban mechanic Menino. “When I hear Josh talk, I can hear Tom Menino,” Kineavey told the attendees. “Tom would say, “I want you to do two things: listen and return your phone calls.” The move to draft Kineavey adds some heft to the campaign according to political observers..
“We are not going to put forth budgets that have no nothing to be cut out of them, because in the end, our campaign is not about political ideology. It’s not about academic political theory. It’s about getting results for all the citizens of Boston,” declared Kraft.
Kraft was candid about his status at this point in the campaign. No incumbent mayor has been defeated since the 1940s. “We know beating an incumbent is an uphill battle, but there’s no doubt in our minds … we cannot do it without the support of all of you.”
The preliminary municipal election will take place on September 9, 2025 (with a voter registration deadline is August 30, 2025). The final municipal election is November 4, 2025 (with a voter registration deadline is October 25, 2025).
Frank Conte is the editor and publisher of EastBoston.com, the neighborhood’s first news site, established in 1995.
Originally posted on February 27, 2025.
