Democratic mayoral candidate Josh Kraft pulled his campaign Thursday night after a decisive defeat in Boston’s mayoral primary election.

Kraft received 21,324 votes to incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu’s 66,398 votes, losing by a margin of nearly 50%.  

The other two candidates, Domingos DaRosa and Robert Cappucci, each received about 2% of the vote. 

Kraft spent 35 years working in communities within Boston. He was president of the New England Patriots Foundation and worked with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston for three decades, 12 of those years as its president and CEO.

Kraft has never held an elected office. His campaign focused on listening to voters while criticizing the current administration. 

“This campaign focused on ensuring that each and every resident of Boston had a seat at the table, and ensuring that they had a say in the kind of city we all live in and love,” Kraft wrote in a farewell message on X.

Kraft raised $6.8 million for his campaign compared to Wu’s $1.8 million. However, Kraft’s raised funds included roughly $5.5 million of his own money.

Community engagement was a facet of both Kraft and Wu’s campaigns. 

“I respect Josh’s decision and thank him for caring about our city deeply enough to want to make it better,” Wu wrote in a statement released Thursday evening. “We are going to continue over the next two months and beyond to keep engaging our community members about the critical work in front of us and how we keep making Boston a safe, welcoming home for everyone.”

Had Kraft remained in the race, Wu and Kraft would both advance to the general election in November.