Incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu ran unopposed in Boston’s municipal election, securing her second term as mayor after the polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday. 

Wu was guaranteed victory after her opponent, Josh Kraft, dropped out days after a decisive defeat in the city’s preliminary elections in September. 

Voters expressed their support for Wu across the city on election day. In a poll conducted in April, Wu had 61% job approval, and 50% of voters said she deserves to be reelected.

Vivien Li, a Back Bay resident and commission member for the Boston Municipal Lobbying Compliance Commission, said Wu’s lack of opposition showed “Boston residents cannot be bought,” referencing Kraft’s decisive primary loss despite spending over three times as much on his campaign than Wu — mostly of his own money.

“Because [Kraft] hadn’t lived in the city very long and really didn’t know the issues and didn’t have a plan for what would happen in the next four years that really worked against him,” Li said.

In the months following Kraft’s announcement, momentum heavily shifted in Wu’s favor. 

The mayor’s approval rating amongst Boston residents increased 29% — from 43% in February to 72% in September.

Josué González, a para-actuarial analyst living in Back Bay, said Wu standing as the only mayoral candidate “speaks volumes for how well she’s done in the city.”

“She really makes an effort to be amongst the citizens of Boston,” said González, pointing to Wu taking public transportation to work. “She deserves to be reelected.” 

A September poll by Emerson College found the top issues amongst Boston voters to be threats to democracy followed by the economy, housing affordability, health care and immigration. 

Jocyline Semedo, a Dorchester resident and former youth violence prevention and intervention advocate, lauded Wu for putting forth “a lot of initiative for the youth to be working.” 

Semedo also praised Wu’s defiance of the Trump administration’s immigration policies and described Wu as “courageous [in] standing behind Boston.” She hopes the Mayor will “continue standing up on the immigration front.”

Wu has frequently been criticized by the Trump administration for defending Boston’s sanctuary city policies, such as the Boston Trust Act, which prevents local law enforcement from assisting in civil immigration enforcement.

Simultaneously, her defiance has raised her profile and strengthened her support among Bostonians. 

Sally, a Back Bay resident who preferred to go by a pseudonym for privacy concerns, said it would’ve been “almost impossible” for Kraft to defeat Wu amid her growing popularity. 

“She made such an impression on the national stage that you have to assume that she’s able to handle something as small-time as mayor of [Boston],” Sally said. 

Since taking office, the Trump administration has launched a series of deportation raids in Boston and across Massachusetts. The raids — dubbed “Operation Patriot” — have led to the arrests of nearly 3,000 people.

Cassidy Waldrip, a doctoral student at Northeastern University who cast her ballot for Wu at the Boston Public Library polling center Tuesday, said her support for the incumbent was tied to her stance on immigration. 

“I’m mostly worried about immigration and people feeling afraid of things happening to them,” she said. “I don’t want that to happen in our city.”