It wasn't me: Mayor Michelle Wu denies influencing Boston City Council president vote

Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald on Jan 13, 2026

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BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu denied allegations that she colluded with two of her strongest allies on the City Council to influence the body’s presidency vote.

Wu said she was in contact with councilors throughout the night before the City Council’s shocking vote to elect Liz Breadon as its president. She said she was getting updates about how the situation was unfolding, but didn’t direct Councilors Sharon Durkan and Enrique Pepén to visit Breadon’s home to recruit her for the post.

“I was busily writing, finishing my inaugural speech that night, and so I was getting little bits and pieces of information from the team, just as people were updating me,” Wu said during a WBUR radio interview aired on Tuesday. “But, most of all, I was a little bit panicked. Frankly, the speech was not done, and I stayed up quite late trying to finish that.

“So, I was in touch with various councilors who reached out saying, you know this is happening, or that is happening, but it was certainly not my desire or instruction or suggestion that those two should go recruit their colleague to step into the race,” the mayor added.

Breadon, a Wu ally, was elected president by a 7-6 vote at the Jan. 5 Council meeting, which followed the inauguration of the mayor and City Council, where Wu gave a speech highlighting her first-term accomplishments and laying out her priorities for her second, four-year term.

Brian Worrell, the other candidate nominated for president at last week’s meeting, had been vying for the Council presidency for months. He appeared to have the election in hand after Gabriela Coletta Zapata, who claimed to have the presidency locked down for months, dropped out the night before the vote. Three of her key supporters had flipped their votes to Worrell, per City Hall sources.

Breadon said she wasn’t actively seeking the presidency, until she was prodded to pursue the post by Durkan and Pepén, who visited her house “quite late” the night before the vote to urge her to consider running as a “compromise candidate.”

The behind-the-scenes maneuvering led to allegations from some councilors that Wu and her Council allies had worked together to upend Worrell’s bid for the presidency. Worrell had been running with the message that he was aiming to lead an independent Council, and while he’s generally been seen as a progressive supporter of the mayor, he was backed by Wu critics and more moderate councilors.

The City Council is meant to be a check on the mayor’s office, but is stacked with progressive Wu allies, who all voted for Breadon as president and were tapped by the new Council president for key committee leadership posts on Monday.

“It’s a very convenient public or media narrative that there are some councilors who will ‘do the mayor’s bidding,’ and then there are some councilors who won’t do the mayor’s bidding … and try to read that into everything that’s happening,” Wu said.

“But the reality is that every councilor is elected to represent their own district, their constituents,” Wu added. “On the big picture, really, the city is clear on the direction we need to move forward, and there’s a majority of the Council, I believe, that generally wants to move in that direction, reflecting the majority of the city.”

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