Kim Janey, the acting mayor of Boston, is one of several candidates running for mayor in the city election this fall. State House News Service Photo by Katie Lannan.
Kim Janey won’t be the mayor of Boston as of the start of next year.
That’s because she didn’t advance to Boston mayoral general election on November 2.
Late Tuesday night, the acting mayor of Boston and city council president conceded in the preliminary election, even as the final results of the election were unknown to the public. At-large city councilors Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George declared victory in the race while fellow at-large city councilor Andrea Campbell also conceded. That indicates that Wu and Essaibi George each won the top-two spots to face each other in the general election — even though the results are still unofficial.
“While we are still waiting on some results, it appears that we have come up short in the election,” Janey said in a written statement. “I want to congratulate Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi-George on their victories this evening. This was a spirited and historic race, and I wish them both luck in the final election.”
With 43 percent of votes reported, Wu had 36 percent of the vote, Essaibi George had 21 percent, Campbell had 19 percent, Janey had 18 percent, and everyone else was in the single digits.
Janey, the city council president, has served as the acting mayor of Boston since March 2021. She took over for Marty Walsh, who was appointed and confirmed as the U.S. Secretary of Labor for President Joe Biden’s administration.
Janey has been the subject of controversy throughout her tenure as acting mayor.
She compared coronavirus vaccine passports to slavery in August, was photographed not wearing a mask in a restaurant in late August on the day when her mask mandate went into effect, and Boston Public Schools gave out pencils on the first day of school that said “Mayor Kim Janey” on them — shortly before the preliminary round of the Boston mayoral election.
Janey will no longer serve on the city council after this year, either. That’s because she would have been up for re-election this year. She was first elected to the post in 2017 and re-elected in 2019.
Although Wu and Essaibi George have a lot of agreement on the issues, there are a couple of issues where they stood apart from the rest of the field. Wu was the only mayoral candidate to explicitly endorse rent control, whereas Essaibi George called for hiring 200 to 300 more Boston police officers.
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Kim Janey, the acting mayor of Boston, is one of several candidates running for mayor in the city election this fall. State House News Service Photo by Katie Lannan. 
