New Balance chairman and Republican mega-donor Jim Davis gave $1 million to a super PAC backing mayoral candidate Josh Kraft in April, an opening salvo in what campaign finance experts predict will be an expensive mayoral election in Boston.Super PACs, the shadowy big-money spending groups best known for their influence in national politics, are playing an increasing role in local campaigns nationwide.
Davis gave $1 million to the “Your City, Your Future” independent political action committee on April 1, according to a campaign finance report made public last Friday and first reported by the Commonwealth Beacon. The group was formed in February and cites a mission to “support candidates who work to create a thriving, affordable, and sustainable Boston for all and oppose those who do not.” It has since spent $100,000 on digital advertisements supporting Kraft, the Democrat and philanthropist seeking to unseat Mayor Wu.
Davis, the billionaire owner of the Boston-based athletic shoe company, is a major donor to national Republicans who once gave $400,000 to support President Trump’s 2016 campaign. But this is not Davis’s first foray into using super PACs to influence Boston politics.
In recent years, he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting moderate and centrist candidates for mayor and city council. Davis backed Wu’s challenger Annissa Essaibi George in the last mayoral election in 2021, even as Essaibi George asked super PACs to stay out of the race.
Neither Kraft nor Wu has called on super PACs to keep out of this year’s election. A spokesperson for the Kraft campaign declined to comment on Davis’s recent contribution and Davis did not respond to a request for comment.
Wu will likely receive support from outside spending groups as well. Super PACs affiliated with major unions and environmental groups shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars to support her 2021 campaign. Last month, the 1199 SEIU service union’s political action committee gave $100,000 to a super PAC called “Bold Boston,” which spent money on city council candidates endorsed by Wu in the last election. Bold Boston has yet to report any spending this cycle.
Political analysts think the financial support from Davis, a Trump donor, could help Wu tie Kraft to the president, who remains deeply unpopular in Boston. Kraft’s father Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, has also supported Trump in the past.
Kraft has raised more than $700,000 in his first two months on the campaign trail, state campaign finance data show, and is expected to also draw on his family’s wealth. Kraft released a video ad two weeks ago bashing Wu’s $200 million plan to redevelop White Stadium in Franklin Park with a professional women’s soccer team.
This story was first published by WBUR on April 25. The Reporter and WBUR share content through a media partnership.
