A new poll of likely Boston voters conducted by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics (NHIOP) shows Mayor Michelle Wu entering the 2025 election season with clear advantages in approval, favorability, and ballot support. Wu earns strong job approval, with 61% approving and 37% disapproving. Half of voters (50%) say she deserves reelection, while 32% believe it’s time for someone new.
Wu is personally well-regarded, with a 58%-37% favorable/unfavorable rating. Nonprofit executive Josh Kraft, her most visible challenger, is currently underwater at 28%-36%. These advantages translate into a strong early ballot lead: if the election were held today, 53% of voters would choose Wu, while 21% would vote for Kraft.
While voters are pessimistic nationally—72% say the U.S. is on the wrong track—a plurality (46%) believe Boston is headed in the right direction. Just 39% say the city is on the wrong track, suggesting discontent is largely with national rather than local leadership.
Neil Levesque, executive director of NHIOP, noted: “Boston’s young, diverse, and educated electorate appears satisfied with Wu’s leadership. Voter disaffection is aimed at Washington, not City Hall, giving Wu a solid foundation as the race begins.”
Issue Landscape & Voting Blocs:
- Kraft leads among voters who disapprove of Boston’s “sanctuary city” status (44%-14%), but Wu leads among those dissatisfied with the city’s handling of housing, traffic, homelessness, crime, and transit.
- Kraft performs strongly among those unhappy with Boston’s quality of life (47%-19%).
- Wu dominates among voters prioritizing elections/democracy (80%-3%), affordable housing (49%-14%), and the economy/inflation (47%-37%), while Kraft leads on government spending/taxes (46%-16%).
- Wu leads among Democrats (75%-8%); Kraft leads among Republicans (48%-2%).
Levesque added: “Kraft has a defined base, but to compete he must broaden support—especially among voters who don’t yet connect the city’s challenges to overall quality of life. That will be difficult in an issues environment dominated by national concerns.”
Despite concerns—67% disapprove of housing policy, 66% of traffic management, and 57% of homelessness response—70% of voters are satisfied with Boston’s quality of life, including 27% who are very satisfied.
These results are from a Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll based on online surveys of 564 Boston, Massachusetts, likely voters in the upcoming election for Mayor. Surveys were collected between April 23rd and 25th, 2025, from cell phone users randomly drawn from a sample of registered voters reflecting the demographic and partisan characteristics of the voting population. Names were presented in random order for the favorability and ballot tests. The survey has an overall margin of sampling error of +/- 4.1% with a confidence interval of 95%. The data are weighted for age, gender, race, and education based on a voter demographic model derived from historical voting patterns, but are not weighted by party registration or party identification.
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About the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College
Founded in 2001, the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College provides a nonpartisan forum for political discussion, scholarship, and civic engagement. The Institute fosters dialogue on a broad range of political issues, serving students, scholars, policymakers, and the public.