Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell told Boston Public Radio on Thursday she is best suited mayoral candidate to lead the city through systemic change during a "profound moment of reckoning," citing the various protests in the city calling for racial justice and police reform this year.
"Boston needs leadership that not only understands the systemic inequities these residents are talking about, but also leadership that has lived them," Campbell said.
Campbell has differentiated herself from the other candidate in the race, fellow Councilor Michelle Wu, by highlighting her Boston roots. Wu hails from Chicago.
Current Mayor Marty Walsh has not yet announced if he will run for re-election.
"The issues I've focused on as a city councilor, whether it's education, racial equity, criminal justice reform, youth development, are connected to my experience of growing up here," she said. "And particularly going through Boston Public Schools, and also of course seeing how that system, especially our school system, did not work for most kids growing up in this city, including my own twin brother."
Campbell has often returned to the story of her twin brother Andre, who died in pre-trial custody at age 29.
If elected, both Wu and Campbell would be the first non-white person and the first woman mayor in the city's history, as well as — if Walsh does run, and loses — the first to unseat an incumbent since the 1940s. The lack of announcement from Walsh, who leads in a recent GBH News/MassINC poll, has sparked speculation that he may be in the running for a Joe Biden cabinet position if he becomes president.
According to the poll, which was conducted before Campbell formally announced, she trailed both Wu and Walsh, garnering just 4% support among the surveryed registered Boston voters.
Campbell said if elected mayor, she will "approach the deep inequities that still exist in the city of Boston with greater urgency, and with greater action."
