Andrea Campbell: Boston's Communities of Color Have 'Never Gotten Out Of The Red' With COVID-19

Before Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced he'd been tapped for a position in the Biden administration, only two people announced they'd be willing to run against him: City Councilors Michelle Wu and Andrea Campbell.

Now that the stakes of running against an established incumbant have dissolved, the race is expected to open up. Campbell told Boston Public Radio on Tuesday that her strategy remains the same, regardless of who may jump in the race.

"I knew the urgency and the opportunity of the moment," she said of her decision to get in the race in September, shortly after fellow councilor Wu had announced her run.

"We need to confront our own painful history of racism and division," she said. "But to do that, we need leadership that is bold, courageous, understands those inequities and of course has lived them. Never in a million years did I think I'd be able to take a personal and painful personal story and use it for such a time as this. So nothing has changed."

Campbell is running on her Boston roots, and she often speaks of her twin brother, Andre, whose death in pretrial detention foundationally impacted her vision of Boston and the way government should work for its people.

"That question is fueling this work and will continue to fuel this mayoral run, with the goal of eradicating these inequties but doing it in a way that brings people together," Campbell said.

Campbell said the city's COVID-19 response is her top priority, and that she will invest in "resiliency and modernizing our public health infrastructure" so that it works for everyone, noting that people of color have been hit hard by COVID-19 due to systemic health inequties and racism.

"Communities of color have been bearing the brunt of this from the very beginning," Campbell said. "They have been in the red since the very beginning. I know there's been disussion about the city going back into the red. Some communties in the city of Boston have never gotten out of the red."

She also praised the Boston Public Schools' plan to reopen classrooms by the end of March, starting with students with the highest needs and the youngest learners first.