Sharon Durkan cruised to an easy victory over Montez Haywood in the Special Election on Tuesday, July 25, to succeed Kenzie Bok as the District 8 City Councilor. According to the city’s unofficial election results, Durkan, a longtime political organizer in the city who has chaired the Boston Ward 5 Democratic Committee since 2019, won every district and garnered just over 70 percent of the ballot (1,968 of 2,810 total votes cast).
Haywood, an assistant district attorney with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office since 2006 who launched an unsuccessful bid against newcomer Bok for the District 8 City Council seat in the fall of 2019, trailed with more than 29 percent of the ballot (824 of 2,810 total votes cast). An additional 18 ballots, or .64 percent of total votes, were cast for write-in candidates. “Thank you, District 8,” Durkan posted on Twitter. “With your support, we won every precinct of the district. I am so thrilled to be your next City Councilor, and I couldn’t be more excited to get to work.” Over the course of her campaign, Durkan, who moved to Boston in 2015 to work for then-City Councilor Michelle Wu and has since worked for Sen. Ed Markey, among other elected officials, racked up a number of endorsements from electeds, including Mayor Wu, Sens. Ed Markey and Lydia Edwards, and Reps. Jay Livingstone and Aaron Michlewitz, as well as from Bok, who stepped down as District 8 City Councilor on April 28 to become administrator of the Boston Housing Authority. (Haywood received an endorsement from the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association.) Despite the outcome of the Special Election, Haywood and Durkan will again vie for the District 8 City Council seat to represent the neighborhoods of Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Fenway, Audubon Circle, Mission Hill, and the West End in the Nov. 7 municipal general election.