Brighton is a former town and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, located in the northwestern corner of the city. It is named after the English city of Brighton. Initially Brighton was part of Cambridge, and known as "Little Cambridge". Brighton separated from Cambridge in 1807 after a bridge dispute, and was annexed to Boston in 1874. For much of its early history, it was a rural town with a significant commercial center at its eastern end.
The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year terms and there is no limit on the number of terms an individual can serve. Boston uses a strong-mayor form of government in which the city council acts as a check against the power of the executive branch, the mayor. The council is responsible for approving the city budget; monitoring, creating, and abolishing city agencies; making land use decisions; and approving, amending, or rejecting other legislative proposals.
William P. Linehan is a former member and president of the Boston City Council in Boston, Massachusetts. He represented District 2, which includes Downtown Boston, the South End, South Boston and Chinatown.
Ayanna Soyini Pressley is an American politician who has served as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 7th congressional district since 2019. This district includes the northern three quarters of Boston, most of Cambridge, parts of Milton, as well as all of Chelsea, Everett, Randolph, and Somerville. Before serving in the United States House of Representatives, Pressley served as an at-large member of the Boston City Council from 2010 through 2019. She was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2018 after she defeated the ten-term incumbent Mike Capuano in the Democratic primary election for Massachusetts' 7th congressional district and ran unopposed in the general election. Pressley was the first black woman elected to the Boston City Council and the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts. Pressley is a member of "The Squad", a group of progressive Congress members.
Tito Jackson is an American politician who was a member of the Boston City Council. He represented council District 7, representing parts of the Roxbury neighborhood and parts of Dorchester, South End, and Fenway. In 2017, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Boston. After leaving the Boston City Council, Jackson worked in the cannabis industry. In 2022, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu appointed Jackson to the city's Commission on Black Men and Boys.
Michelle Wu is an American politician serving as the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, since 2021. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, she was the first Asian American woman to serve on the Boston City Council, from 2014 to 2021, and acted as its president from 2016–2018. She is the first woman and first non-white person to have been elected mayor of Boston. Wu is a member of the Democratic Party.
Andrea Joy Campbell is an American lawyer and politician who is serving as the attorney general of Massachusetts. Campbell is a former member of the Boston City Council. On the city council, she represented District 4, which includes parts of Boston's Dorchester, Mattapan, Jamaica Plain, and Roslindale neighborhoods. A member of the Democratic Party, she was first elected to the council in November 2015 and assumed office in January 2016. She served as president of the council from January 2018 until January 2020. Campbell unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Boston in 2021, placing third in the nonpartisan primary election behind Annissa Essaibi George and Michelle Wu, the latter of whom would go on to win the general election.
Boston City Council elections were held on November 5, 2019. Nomination forms could be submitted starting April 17, and candidates had a filing deadline of May 21. A preliminary election was held on September 24. By law, Boston municipal elections are nonpartisan—candidates do not represent a specific political party.
Lydia Marie Edwards is an American attorney and politician. She served as a member of the Boston City Council from the 1st district from 2018 to 2022 and has served as a member of the Massachusetts Senate from the 1st Suffolk and Middlesex district since 2022. She resigned from the Boston City Council at the end of April 2022.
Priscilla MacKenzie "Kenzie" Bok is the administrator of the Boston Housing Authority. She previously served as a member of the Boston City Council, representing District 8, which includes Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway–Kenmore, Mission Hill, and the West End. She is also a lecturer on Social Studies at Harvard University, where she teaches intellectual history and history of philosophy. Bok was elected to the City Council in the November 2019 election. In 2023, Mayor Michelle Wu appointed Bok to become the head of the Boston Housing Authority.
Kim Michelle Janey is an American politician and community organizer who served as the acting mayor of Boston for eight months in 2021. She served as president of the Boston City Council from 2020 to 2022, and as a member of the council from the 7th district from 2018 to 2022. As a black woman, her tenure as acting mayor made her the first woman and the first person of color to lead the city.
Frank Baker is an American politician who represents District 3 on the Boston City Council. He was first elected on November 8, 2011.
The 2021 Boston mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2021, to elect the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts. Incumbent mayor Marty Walsh was eligible to seek a third term. However, he resigned as mayor on March 22, 2021, after being confirmed as secretary of labor in the Cabinet of Joe Biden. This left the Boston City Council president, at the time Kim Janey, to hold the role of acting mayor until the victor of the election would take office.
The 2021 Boston City Council election was held on November 2, 2021. All thirteen councillors from the nine districts and four councillors at-large were up for election. Elections in Boston are officially nonpartisan.
Ruthzee Louijeune is an American politician and lawyer serving as president of the Boston City Council. She has been an at-large member of the Boston City Council since January 2022, and has served as the council's president since January 2024. She is the first Haitian-American to serve on the council.
Ricardo N. Arroyo is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Massachusetts. He was previously a member of the Boston City Council.
Edward M. Flynn is an American politician currently serving on the Boston City Council, representing the city's 2nd district. He has held his seat since January 2017. From January 2022 until January 2024, he served as president of the Boston City Council. He is the son of former Boston mayor Raymond Flynn.
Michelle Wu, a Democrat, served as a member of the Boston City Council from January 2014 until becoming mayor of Boston in November 2021. Wu was first elected to the City Council in November 2013, and was re-elected three times. In 2016 and 2017, Wu served as the Council’s president.
Ayanna Pressley was first elected to the Boston City Council in November 2009 and served from January 2010 until joining the United States House of Representatives in January 2020. Upon being sworn in as a city councilor on January 4, 2010, she became the first woman of color to serve in the Boston City Council up to that point.
Michelle Wu has served as mayor of Boston, Massachusetts since November 2021. Wu was elected mayor in 2021, winning with 64% of the vote, becoming the first woman, first person of color, and first Asian American elected to serve as the mayor of Boston. Wu is a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to being sworn in as mayor, Wu served as a member of the Boston City Council
