Though Anthony Buono, an undergraduate and graduate alum from Boston University College of Arts and Sciences, was always interested in politics, he never thought he would become a politician.
“It doesn’t seem like [politics] is something that a normal person should be able to do,” he said. “But I’ve learned it is.”
Buono, who studied Math and Statistics and graduated with his Master’s in 2022, ran for Brookline Town Meeting, the legislative arm of Brookline’s government, that same year.
His victory made him the youngest member to be elected at the time.
Over his tenure, he assisted residents with rent, as well as advocating for accessible and green schools in Brookline, he said — all while balancing the budget.
Currently, he is president of the Town Meeting Members Association, which runs educational events for members, and serves on the Capital and the Administration and Finance subcommittees.
While Buono grew up talking about political issues with friends and family members, he became more motivated to join politics when listening in to Bernie Sanders’ 2020 Democratic primary campaign.
“That is what spoke to me. It is the deep and radical empathy that flew through that campaign of being willing to fight for anybody and anyone, even if you never met them, because you understood that if you fight for their best interest and they fight for your best interest, then we’re all going to be way better off,” he said. “I felt an obligation to act.”
After Sanders’ campaign, Buono began volunteering, canvassing and phone banking for progressive causes.
Those experiences, he said, helped him talk politics to others even if he disagreed with them.
“That’s a skill I’ve taken with me today. [It’s] helped me a lot in my political career,” he said.
During his time at BU, Buono joined and later became president of BU’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America.
Buono said many YDSA events inspired him to “look at injustice at a different angle.”
He also started a campaign for BU to provide free laundry. The idea, Buono said, originated when he was thinking about achievable and effective ways BU could help its students.
Having free laundry, Buono said, would be a “good and easy win.”
As part of the movement, Buono and the YSDA created a petition that more than 3,000 students signed, negotiated with BU’s administration and organized a protest outside Marsh Chapel.
While BU ultimately did not implement free laundry, Buono said the progress the movement made was an encouraging sign in itself.
“It showed, at least some of the people around me that I was able to talk to, that these different institutions that we’re part of can provide better things to us if we organized effectively,” he said.
After graduating from BU, Buono was lost with what he should do politically.
“There’s no more doors to knock on. There’s no more people to call. Where do I go? What do I do?” he said.
Eventually, someone from Buono’s local Democratic Party convinced him to run for Brookline Town Meeting — a position, he said, that would let him tackle a “massive” housing crisis in New England.
Jonathan Klein, a Brookline Town Meeting member who had gotten to know Buono when they were both running for Town Meeting, realized they had a lot in common. The two worked together during the campaigning period.
“I think he’s not afraid of change,” Klein said. “He’s looking forward to the future and the changes we need to make Brookline keep working in the future.”
Running a campaign as an untested newcomer, especially by himself, required both financial and social effort, Buono said.
“No one knew me, and I knocked on every single door in my district. I knocked on every one. I talked to hundreds of people. I spent a ton of my own money, mailed out a bunch of postcards and all that,” he said.
Despite those challenges, Buono said by showing he was passionate, knowledgeable and personable about the issues he campaigned for, he believed he could resonate with every voter he met.
“Every person I talked to, they had my phone number. And they would call me. And we would chat,” he said. “If they saw rats in their backyard, they called me and I called the Department of Public Works and I tried to get their rat problem taken care of.”
When all votes were tallied, Buono ended up getting the most votes — more than any of the five incumbents running, he said. But still, he knew he had to adjust to the experience of other members.
“I knew nothing. For the first year of me being in [the] Town Meeting, I didn’t say a word. I had to learn,” he said.
It was also difficult for him to get taken seriously, Buono said, because he was so much younger than most Town Meeting members.
“I had a conversation with one of those people who were skeptical of me, they walked away either endorsing me or really glad that I was in the fray,” he said. “Because they recognized that I was the real deal really early on.”
But by slowly learning the ropes of government and having conversations with other members, Buono could accomplish what he set out to do.
“In the second year, I really came out swinging hard,” he said.
Joslin Murphy, a current Town Meeting member of Precinct 16, said Buono brought a “refreshing” perspective to Brookline affairs.
“He knows the right questions to ask. He knows the right records to ask for. And then he knows how to accumulate all of that data and figure out what’s what,” she said.
Buono hoped that others will follow his path and become leaders in their own right.
“People are clamoring for leadership. And there is no reason that anybody reading this article does not have the capacity to be that leader,” Buono said. “So I encourage everybody to get the hell out there and make the world they want to see.”
This story was published at 12:00 p.m.
