Michelle Wu has been elected as Boston’s first female mayor. Ms Wu is also the first person of colour to serve in this position. 

She won the elections on Tuesday, clinching the position ahead of fellow woman of colour Annissa Essaibi George, also of the Democrat Party.  Ms Wu won 62.2 per cent of the vote while Ms George won 35.8 per cent of the vote.

“We are ready to meet this moment. We are ready to become a Boston for everyone. We’re ready to be a Boston that doesn’t push people out, but welcomes all who call our city home,” Ms Wu said on election night to her supporters. 

Ms Wu, a daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, is the first woman and woman of colour to be elected to this position, putting an end to Boston’s history of only electing white men for the job. 

Ms George congratulated Ms Wu’s historic win on Tuesday night. “She is the first woman, first person of colour, and as an Asian American, the first elected to be mayor of Boston,” she said. “I know this is no small feat.”

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also tweeted its “heartiest congratulations to @wutrain on winning the #Boston mayoral race. We couldn’t be prouder of the 1st woman & Asian American to hold the city’s top job. More power to her as she keeps breaking those glass ceilings!”

Ms Wu’s campaign focused on creating policies to tackle Boston’s wealth and race gap, the campaign also included stabilising rent prices across the city, implementing free public transportation and a “city-level Green New Deal agenda” that meant investing in green energy and planting more trees. 

In 2013, Ms Wu was first elected to Boston’s city council as the first Asian-American woman to serve as city councilman. Between 2016 and January 2018, Ms Wu served as the council’s first woman of colour president.