This week brought some shakeups in the Boston mayoral race, with Jon Santiago dropping out and longtime political figure Felix Arroyo and his son, City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, both throwing their support behind acting Mayor Kim Janey. Meanwhile, the most recent polling from late June shows about one-fifth of voters still undecided.
The Boston Globe’s Marcela García and the Bay State Banner's Yawu Miller joined Adam Reilly on Thursday to discuss the state of the race on Greater Boston.
When Reilly asked about the political inclinations of Latinos in Boston's mayoral race, García responded that there can't be clear insights with such a diverse group of voters. She recalled the 2020 presidential election in which a large number of Latinos voted for former President Donald Trump — "and that took a lot of people by surprise, apparently."
"I'd like to tell you this incredible insight into the mind of the Latino electorate, but I'm afraid I can't," García said. "One key takeaway right here, and polls have shown this, [is] that Latinos are undecided — but that just tells you that they are up for grabs and that they are persuadable."
Those speculating about the race's outcome also have to consider the changing ways that voters decide on their candidate, along with the availability of dozens of candidate forums to watch.
"In Boston, Blacks, Latinos and white progressives have always voted together, historically," Miller said. "I think increasingly, people in Boston are voting on issues over racial identity."
"I do think that Santiago was sort of taking a tack to the right," Miller continued, "supporting police and going against reforms to police, he was against rent control — he sort of took positions that are on the right end of the spectrum in Boston — and that might not have resonated among the people who many assumed would have been his base."
The exact impact of the Arroyos' endorsement of Janey can't be predicted — or measured, according to Miller. But he recalled the litany of endorsements from Black and Latino elected officials of Marty Walsh when he was running for mayor in 2013 against John Connolly.
"The fact that every Black and Latino elected official endorsed Marty Walsh, I think, really tipped the scales," Miller said.
September's preliminary election is just under two months away, but there are still a number of unknowns, with questions lingering about early and mail-in voting. Such measures could dramatically affect turnout, García said. And there are also, of course, the voters themselves.
"Most of the polls have shown Janey and Wu in almost a dead heat," Miller said. "The undecideds, I think, around 30%. So I think a lot is going to hinge on: who are those undecided people, and why are they sitting on the fence? What are they waiting for? What do they want to hear?"
WATCH: Marcela García and Yawu Miller on the state of Boston's mayoral race
