In 2022, Brett Smiley, a relative moderate, became mayor of Providence after vowing to address housing and public safety. In 2023, a Democrat who favored forcibly removing homeless people and said he wanted to make the City Council more conservative won in Portland, Maine.

Mayor Wu is both gearing up for a competitive race against Kraft and preparing to testify before Congress about Boston's "sanctuary" policies.

Out Wu’ing Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. As he launched his campaign for the city’s top spot on Tuesday, the scion of one of the state’s wealthiest and most well-known families more or less promised to do all the stuff Wu promised to do during her first term.