Boston Mayor Michelle Wu's sends a message of defiance against Donald Trump as she celebrates her victory Tuesday.
There was no suspense when the polls closed. Wu, the first Asian American mayor ran unopposed after trouncing her only challenger in the primaries and her popularity soared when she challenged Trump's immigration policies.
The national profile of 40-year old Wu and mother of three rose in the last six months as Boston grappled with Donald Trump's policies descended on the city and the nation.
Wu has a contentious relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), characterized by her efforts to obtain more information about ICE arrests in Boston, her public criticism of their tactics, and her administration's policies that are considered a form of "sanctuary city" policy.
This has led to backlash from the Trump administration, which has accused her of obstructing federal immigration laws.Trump's Department of Justice sued Wu, the City of Boston and the Boston Police Department for their sanctuary city policies.
“Unlike the Trump administration, Boston follows the law – city, state and federal,” Wu said in a statement. “We are the safest major city in the country because all of our community members know that they are part of how we keep the entire community safe. Stop attacking cities to hide your administration’s failures.”
For her resistance and the city's "sanctuary city" policies, Trump has threatened to send the National Guard to Boston, which he describes as a crime-ridden city.
Despite Trump's claims of Boston's heavy crime across the city the city has seen decreases in crime in recent years. In 2024, Boston broke the record for lowest number of homicides in the city since 1957, according to a press conference.
“On behalf of the people of Boston, and in solidarity with communities targeted by the Trump administration for our refusal to bow down to unlawful threats, we affirm our support for each other and for our democracy,” said Wu in a letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Boston will never back down from being a beacon of freedom and a home for everyone.”
In her victory speech Tuesday night, Wu said: "You'd think, at some point, they'd learn: Boston doesn't back down."
"That is what this election was about here in Boston," she said. "Not just how we lead, but what we believe. Whether we believe that wealth should buy power—We don't. Whether experience matters—It does. And most of all, whether we will bow to a criminal who acts like a king."
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Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was difiant against Donald Trump.
ANALYSIS
Among the 7 million No Kings demonstrators, Asian Americans made their presence known. They were not the largest group nor the loudest, but they were there, holding signs, reveling in the knowledge that they were not alone in their anger, disatisfaction and disdain for Donald Trump.
Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island individuals and groups joined the Oct. 18 "No Kings" marches to express their concerns over the Trump administration's policies, focusing on issues like immigration, civil rights, voting rights and rising anti-Asian racism.
Sometimes you see a photo or hear a line of poetry that just stays with you. It’s funny how memories are like that. I recently found a black-and-white picture of my father from when he was a young man, a dashing and handsome man with smoldering eyes, staring defiantly back at the camera. We always think of our parents as old, and we forget that once they were young and had that rebellious spirit. My dad is gone now, but I think of that picture when I see a new generation finding its own voice of defiance.
That's the kind of feeling that comes to mind when I see images from the recent "No Kings" protests that swept across the U.S. this past weekend. A lot of Asian Americans, particularly in places like Boston and Los Angeles, had that same defiant look in their eyes. This wasn't about a single policy. It was about sending a message.
And boy, did Boston get the message across, with an exclamation point, I might add.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, the historic city's first Asian American mayor, was right there on the front lines in her city. Standing with thousands on Boston Common, America's first public park, she reminded everyone that resisting tyranny is about as American as it gets. For 250 years, the city has stood up against injustice, and it wasn't about to back down now.
"Boston has never been good at surrender or silence," as the crowd roared its approval. You have to love that line. It speaks to something deep in the American character—a willingness to speak up, to make a mess when things aren't right.
“In Boston, every day is No Kings Day,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said. Confronted by hecklers, she shrugged them off, saying, “This is Boston, where every voice is heard.”
Wu, who has frequently clashed with the Trump administration over its racist immigration policies, told the crowd that Trump and Republicans attacked Boston because they know it symbolizes freedom and revolution.
“We stand here today to tell the Trump administration, when it comes to our freedoms, when it comes to our families, Boston doesn’t back down,” Wu told the partisan crowd. “What terrifies them about our city isn’t just that we kicked out a king and we [can] do it again.”
“It’s not just that our city is not for sale or that we run a government that actually delivers as a home for everyone and the safest major city in the country,” she continued. “It’s not just that we empower our workers and stand with public employees instead of using them as political pawns. What scares them the most about Boston is that we are proof of the America they insist is impossible.
As one of the other Boston speakers said, "It's not nice and neat and squeaky. It's messy, it's disruptive, it's uncomfortable". And that's exactly what democracy looks like sometimes.
In Queens, N.Y., which has a large Asian American population, Rep. Grace Meng told the thousands of marchers, “One of the hardest stories that I keep hearing over and over again are from folks who immigrated to this country, whether they just came a few months ago or whether they came two generations ago, and they have a sad look on their face, exasperated, saying that this is not the country that they came to. This is not what democracy looks like.”
NYC COUNCIL
Asian Americans joined the No Kings rallies in New York City.
“They sacrificed so much, many of them fled hardships in their home countries and then they came here to build a better life for their kids and their neighbors and their families. But this is not what they came for.”
Meng continued: “In just a few months, this President has shown us who he fights for.
"It’s not America, it’s not for the people, it’s for the wealthiest and the well connected, and we’re not going to stand for it.
For many in the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, the issues were personal. In Los Angeles, some of the participants were protesting immigration raids, worried about students being separated from their families. But it goes beyond just immigration. AAPI communities have a history of fighting for their place at the table, a history of facing discrimination and overcoming it.
Beyond Boston, other U.S. cities with strong AAPI participation in the October 2025 "No Kings" protests included Chicago, and Honolulu and, of course, in California home to 7 million Asian Americans, the most of any state.
The San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles is home to several enclaves of Asian communities: Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese and Korean. It is represented by Congressmember Judy Chu.
“This is a continuation of what we as a country are doing to resist this authoritarian, fascist regime,” Chu told the crowd, urging participants to see the event as “practice—building our muscles of protest and resistance.”
She called for peaceful but determined civic action, saying, “Power does not give up without a fight. Our anger will motivate us, but it’s community that will keep us together.”
In San Bruno, Calif. hundreds of people gathered at the Tanforan Assembly Memorial, a former horse-racing track, where Japanese American were incarcerated. Speakers included survivors of WWII internment, drawing parallels between the historical inccarceration of Japanese Americans and current immigration policies. Grace Morizawa, a 79-year-old Berkeley resident whose parents met in an internment camp, expressed solidarity with today's immigrants, stating, "you could just hear the passion in their voice when they said they don't want to see that happen again."
SCREEN CAPTURE
Seven thousand people joined the Sacramento march and. rally highlighted by a speech by Rep. Doris Matsui, who was born in one of the camps that incarcerated about 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII.
"Today we reminded Donald Trump, loud and clear, that in this country WE HAVE NO KINGS," Matsui told the participants.
"We don’t worship power — we build it together: In our neighborhoods. On our streets. In our unions.
"That’s who we are, that’s Sacramento, and I’ll always have your back," she said to a volley of applause and cheers.
Protesters in Oakland were marching in the city's streets, chanting, "whose streets? Our Streets." Part of the route led marchers through Chinatown down 13th Street, winding up in a rally in front of City Hall.
Asian Americans also took part in several large-scale protests in Los Angeles. One of the protests occurred in Historic Filipinotown near downtown L.A. “When I enlisted, I swore a solemn oath to uphold the US constitution, to help protect the nation from enemies without and within. Today, I would never swear allegiance or bend the knee to a wannabe king because there are NO KINGS in America,” US Army veteran Joe Arciaga said in a press statement.
When an administration starts to sound like it thinks it's above the law, a lot of different people, from different backgrounds, hear the same alarm bells ringing. The "No Kings" protests are a modern-day call to arms, not with weapons but with signs and voices. It's a reminder that we are a nation of laws, not of rulers.
This is a story that will continue to unfold. The protesters, with an estimated 7 million turning out nationwide, weren't just angry; they were energized and organized. They weren't just there for a single day. They were carrying a message that they intend to take back to their communities. And it is a message we all need to remember: Freedom over fascism.
No Kings. No dictators. No fascists. No way!
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge.
Michelle Wu was sworn in as Boston's Mayor by Judge Myoun J. Joun.
Michelle Wu, the daughter of immigrants from Taiwan, was officially sworn in as the next Mayor of Boston. She is the first woman and first Asian American to lead the historic city.
Wu, 36m took the oath of office Tuesday in the Boston City Council Chamber, just two weeks after her history-making election. Before Wu, Boston voters had elected only White men.
"Boston was founded on a revolutionary promise: that things don’t have to be as they always have been. That we can chart a new path for families now, and for generations to come, grounded in justice and opportunity,” she said after the swearing-in ceremony.
With her two young sons holding the Bible, Wu recited the Oath Office, repeating the words of Judge Myong J. Joun.
Wu was sworn in on the Aitken Bible, the earliest complete English-language Bible printed in America. Often known as the “Bible of the Revolution,” it was published by Robert Aitken in 1782 and it was endorsed by the Congress as a symbol of American ingenuity.
Wu grew up in Chicago and moved to Boston to attend Harvard University and Harvard Law School where she studied under U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. In 2016, her peers on the city's city council elected president of the Boston City Council.
"City government is special," Wu said in her inauguration speech. "We are the level closest to the people, so we must do the big and the small. Every streetlight, every pothole, every park, and classroom, lays the foundation for greater change."
One of her progressive campaign planks was to eliminate fares on the city's public transportation system, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MTBA). She and her family rode the subway to the swearing-in ceremony.
Interviewed byBoston Public Radio, Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung told Boston Public Radio: “(Mayor Wu) won in every part of the city, and in doing so, it shows that Boston accepts Asian Americans — that even though she was not born in Boston or raised in Boston, she is a Bostonian."
Seattle's Bruce Harrell with his family and friends.
Bruce Harrell is Seattle's first Asian American mayor and second Black mayor after his opponent Lorena Gonzalez conceded Thursday.
Even though the votes are still being counted ,Bruce Harrell claimed victory as the first Asian and second Black mayor for Seattle.
"With today’s ballot drop, it’s clear that Bruce Harrell will be the next Mayor of Seattle," González said in a statement Thursday. "Earlier, I called him to congratulate him on a hard-fought race and wished him much luck in his efforts to make progress on the challenges Seattle faces."
From election night, Harrell was able to maintain his comfortable lead, a lead that will likely continue as counting of the ballots continue.
With a 24% leading margin, Harrell, whose mother is a Japanese immigrant who was incarcerated during WWII, called the election "history in the making,"
Harrell's win added to the victories of the Michelle Wu as Boston's first Asian American mayor and Aftab Pureval, Cincinnati's first Asian American mayor marks a remarkable night that saw proof of the growing presence of the Asian American electorate and politicians.
Tuesday night, in her victory speech, Wu said, "I came to this city as a homesick college kid. But as soon as I stepped foot on the red line to Chinatown, tea token in hand, I knew I was home. Thank you, Boston."
Wu's achievement was not lost to her opponent,."She is the first woman, the first person of color, and as an Asian American, the first to be elected mayor of Boston," Essaibi George said. "I know this is no small feat, you know this is no small feat. I want her to show this city how mothers get it done."
Aftab Pureval, of Indian and Tibetan descent, is Cincinnati's first Asian American mayor. He
“Tonight, we made history in Cincinnati,” Pureval told a large gathering of supporters. “Cincinnati is a place where no matter what you look like, where you’re from, or how much money you have, if you come here and work hard you can achieve your dreams.”
The victories of the three mayors in major cities without a large AAPI constituency makes their wins all the more remarkable. Earlier AAPI mayors have occurred in cities that have a large Asian American constituency, usually in California and Hawaii.
New mayors, from left, Michelle Wu, Aftab Pureval and Bruce Harrell.
Meanwhile, in Michigan, Amer Ghalib was elected as the first Muslim and first Yemeni American mayor of Hamtramck, a city of 28,000 near Detroit.
Ghalib unseated the 5-term incumbent, Mayor Karen Majewski, to become the city's first Arab American and Muslim mayor, according to unofficial results from the Wayne County clerk's office.
Ghalib captured 68% of the vote with 100% of precincts reporting. Majewski, who was running for a fifth term to lead the growing city of 28,000 residents, captured 31% of the vote.
A win for Ghalib represents a seismic shift in a city that did not have an Asian or Muslim council member until the 2000s, becoming majority-minority in makeup in the last decade. The city now boasts a foreign-born population of more than 41%. As many as 69% of residents speak a language other than English at home, the census reports.
Ghalib's win could be emblematic of the trend of AAPI moving to the suburbs, a trend that will likely be more evident in the 2022 midterms as AAPI voter wield their growing political influence.
The Reflective Democracy Campaign, which looks at diversity in U.S. politics, recently released a study that found AAPIs make up over 6% of the U.S. population but less than 1% of elected offices.
“As the nation’s fastest growing racial group, Asian Americans are playing an increasingly vital role in determining electoral outcomes, running for office in record numbers and winning elections.,” said Jerry Vattamala, director of Asian American Legal and Education Fund's Democracy Program.
Just two hours after the polls closed Tuesday (Sept. 14), Michelle Wu declared her one of the two finalists for Boston Mayor.
An hour later, Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George claimed the other spot to challenge Wu to become Boston's mayor on Nov. 2.
Wu, endorsed by Massachusett's progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren, led in the polling leading up election day and maintained that lead as the votes were counted.
“I’m overjoyed to share with you in our home neighborhood of Roslindale that we are confident that we are in the top two,” Wu told her supporters at Distraction Brewing Co. to await the results.
The 36-year old Wu, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, became the first Asian American councilor after winning election in 2014. If elected, she would become the first woman of color to hold that position.
The special election was necessary after Mayor Marty Walsh accepted President Biden's invitation to become the Secretary of Labor.
The final count is not expected until the 7000 mail-in ballots that were dropped off on the election day are counted.
"Tonight is not a victory celebration, it is a thank you for what we have been through together and a reminder we have 49 days to get it done,” Wu reminded her supporters.
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U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., right, campaigns for City Councilor Michelle Wu, who is running to become Boston's mayor.
Boston's next mayor may be an Asian American woman reflecting the changing political landscape of the historical city.
Michelle Wu, a city councilwoman, has been running for Mayor for almost a year and of the polls are any indication, the chances are good that she'll be one of the two mayoral candidates vying for the city's top post on Nov. 2.
Wu, who has the endorsement of Sen. Elizabeth Warren leads the polls with the other candidates -- Acting Mayor Kim Janey, City Councilors Andrea Campbell and Annissa Essaibi George, and former city economic development chief John Barros. -- hoping to capture the second spot.
The election is nonpartisan so the finalists could very well be of the same party in the city that is heavily Democratic.
"Growing up, I never thought I would run for office one day. As the daughter of immigrants, I understood from my youngest days how my family and so many others feel unseen and unheard in our society," said Wu in a statement.
“I recognize the ways in which I’m not the typical mold of a Boston politician, but it’s really not just gender and ethnicity or age necessarily, although [it’s] all of those things,” she said.
Last Saturday, a rally with Warren was held in Chinatown, the neighborhood is where Wu first began volunteering and community organizing in Boston nearly two decades ago.
“If there was ever a moment when we needed to organize, to fight, to stand up to tackle impossible odds, it is right now. We are facing an ongoing public health crisis and a climate crisis and a displacement crisis. But this is a city, and a community, that stands up to fight," said Wu.
Boston's Asian American population makes up 10% of the city's residents; White, 53%; Blacks, 25%; and Hispanic, 20%.
"After eight years in the City Council, ten years in City Hall, we have seen the power we have to make that change at the local level. I’m so grateful to Senator Elizabeth Warren for being in this fight with me, and know that together, we will take on the big challenges to meet this incredibly important moment,” said Wu.
“I believe in Michelle because I know Michelle. I’ve known Michelle since she was my student, since she had the courage to step up and run for City Council. I’ve known her as a partner in the fight for childcare, more affordable housing and a Boston that works for working people," said Warren.
“We need more working parents in leadership roles. It makes a difference when moms are in charge, and for me, being a mom and raising two boys in this moment in our city and in our country’s history gives me an urgency to make sure that we’re getting things done,” Wu told Yahoo News. “You put a Boston public school mom in charge [of] our city, and we will see changes to match the scale and urgency of our community’s needs.”
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