Michelle Wu

Michelle Wu (Chinese: 吳弭; pinyin: Wú Mǐ; born January 14, 1985) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, since 2021. She is the first woman and the first person of color to be elected to the position. Being 36 years old at the time, she was also the youngest individual to have been elected to the position in nearly a century.

The daughter of Taiwanese American immigrants, Wu graduated with honors from Harvard College and earned her Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. From 2014 to 2021, she was the first Asian American woman to serve on the Boston City Council and acted as its president from 2016–2018. Wu is a member of the Democratic Party.

While on the Boston City Council, Wu authored several ordinances that were enacted. This included an ordinance to prevent the city from contracting with health insurers that discriminate in their coverage against transgender individuals. She also authored ordinances to have the city protect wetlands, support adaption to climate change, enact a plastic bag ban, adopt Community Choice Aggregation, and provide paid parental leave to municipal employees. As a city councilor, Wu also partook in a successful effort to adopt regulations on short-term rentals.

During her mayoralty, Wu has advocated for a municipal "Green New Deal" (the Boston Green New Deal) and signed an ordinance to divest city investments from companies that derive more than 15 percent of their revenue from fossil fuels, tobacco products, or prison facilities. A supporter of fare-free public transportation, Wu has funded a pilot program of fare-free service on three MBTA bus routes, expanding on a single-route pilot program that had previously been started under Kim Janey's preceding acting mayoralty. She also reached a contract agreement with the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association that secured the union's agreement to significant reforms within the Boston Police Department.