Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren delivered a high-profile endorsement to Boston City Council candidate Ruthzee Louijeune Monday, bolstering the first-time contender’s status as one of the front-runners in the council’s crowded at-large race.
Louijeune, who has raised impressive sums of money in her bid to win one of the council’s four at-large posts, served as a senior counsel on Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign.
“Ruthzee is the advocate working families need on the Boston City Council,” Warren said in a statement. “As a lawyer and Boston native, she fought to uplift the diverse communities of Boston and addressed racial and economic justice head-on.”
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Louijeune is one of 17 candidates who have qualified for the ballot in the at-large contest, which includes two incumbents seeking reelection. The impending departures of four councilors who are running for mayor — Michelle Wu, Annissa Essaibi George, Andrea Campbell, and Acting Mayor Kim Janey — have ushered in a large slate of contenders seeking seats on the council in the Sept. 14 preliminary election. Wu and Essaibi George are vacating at-large seats.
Warren has endorsed Wu, her former Harvard Law School student and Senate campaign aide, in the mayoral contest. Louijeune is the first Boston council candidate to receive her backing.
Louijeune, who would be the first Haitian American to serve on the council, said she found out Sunday that Warren would endorse her.
“She is my inspiration for the amount of energy that you need to have when you show up — when you’re talking to voters, and how to be just a really great listener,” Louijeune said.
Louijeune had raised more than $154,000 as of the end of May, according to state campaign finance filings — more than any other city council candidate since the start of the year.
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“From housing and homeownership to access to equitable education, Boston’s working families will have no better champion than Ruthzee,” Warren said in a statement.
Louijeune is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where Warren taught before she was elected to the Senate in 2012.
“Having worked with her and alongside her, having learned from her, she exemplifies just everything that it means to fight for working-class families,” Louijeune said of Warren.
The turnover on the council, spurred largely by the mayoral race, means that the body will see the most change it has had in a single election since 1993.
The general election for municipal races will be held on Nov. 2.