Mayor of Boston, Martin Walsh
Marty Walsh was born to two Irish immigrants in 1967 and grew up in the Savin Hill area of Dorchester. When he was just 7 years old, Walsh was diagnosed with cancer, which would sideline him for several years and disrupt his academics. After multiple rounds of chemotherapy, Marty was finally cured of lymphoma at age 11. He went back to school and eventually graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Boston College.
At age 21, Walsh began serving as the president of the Laborers Local 223 union, a role he held until his election as Mayor. He also held multiple other positions in labor unions, including secretary-treasurer of the Boston Metropolitan District Building Trades Council and head of the Boston Building Trades. In 1997, Marty Walsh was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives to represent the 13th district of Suffolk County, which covered his home town of Dorchester. He chaired several different committees, including the Committee on Ethics and the Special Commission on Public Construction Reform.
In 2013, Walsh announced that he would be running to serve as mayor of Boston and resigned his position as head of Boston Building Trades. One of the main focuses of his campaign was the promise of a “24-hour Boston”, which included, among other things, having the trains run longer into the night. After advancing out of the preliminary mayoral election as the top vote-getter, Walsh faced the second-place vote-getter John Conolly in the general election. In a close city-wide election, Marty Walsh beat out his opponent and was announced as Boston’s new Mayor. A focus of Walsh’s throughout his tenure as Mayor has been the promise to keep Boston as a sanctuary city for all those living in the country without documentation. In his 2017 re-election bid, Mayor Walsh beat opponent Tito Jackson in a landslide 65% to 34% vote.
Walsh has been open about his struggles as a young man, including his fight with alcoholism, and uses his story as an inspiration to Boston’s citizens that everyone is capable of becoming successful regardless of the adversity they face. Mayor Walsh is currently serving out his second term and enjoying the Patriots season tickets he’s held since 1994.