Good morning. Today we’re bringing you takeaways from a Globe profile of the insular, famously wealthy family of Josh Kraft, who is challenging Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
But first, here’s what else is going on:
- President Trump downplayed revelations that his top officials discussed sensitive war plans in a group chat and claimed that a staffer, not his national security adviser, had accidentally invited a journalist. Trump aides who were on the chat testified to the Senate that it didn’t include classified information.
- Mayor Wu appeared on “The Daily Show” last night and will formally launch her reelection campaign next week.
- Bill Chisholm, the private equity executive whose investment group is buying the Celtics, felt “incredible” at his first game since agreeing to purchase the team.
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TODAY’S STARTING POINT
Josh Kraft, the longtime nonprofit leader and son of New England Patriots owner Robert, is the first member of his family to seek elected office. If he succeeds in unseating Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, it would concentrate a huge amount of local power in the hands of a single family.
Yet that family remains something of a black box. Josh’s three brothers, billionaire father, and their associates are private and tight-lipped. So my colleague Mark Arsenault decided to spend a few weeks reporting on the family. He interviewed Josh, watched him campaign, and spoke to people in the Krafts’ orbit.
Here are five takeaways from Mark’s story.
1. Josh takes after his mother.
People who know the Krafts say that Josh, Robert’s third-born son, philosophically resembles his philanthropic mother, Myra, who died of cancer in 2011. “She got up every day wanting to give her money away,” one friend told Mark.
Josh, 57, spent a year teaching after graduating from Williams College, which cultivated an interest in helping children. He later worked to prevent kids from dropping out of school at a South Boston nonprofit, led the Boys & Girls Club of Boston, and helmed his family’s charitable foundation. “He has unique gifts and is a genuinely altruistic person,” said Josh’s brother David, 53, who left the family business more than a decade ago and has donated to Josh’s mayoral campaign.
Their older brothers, by contrast, gravitated to the family business. Jonathan, 61, is president of the Kraft Group holding company and sits next to his father at Patriots games. Daniel, 59, runs a subsidiary paper company that is now the country’s fifth-largest exporter.
2. The family name brings advantages…
Chief among them are deep pockets and a moneyed network. Robert Kraft’s net worth is nearly $12 billion (although state campaign finance laws regarding immediate family members prevent him from donating to or leading any super PAC supporting his son’s campaign, according to my colleague Shirley Leung). The family’s businesses employ nearly 10,000 people. And Josh’s eldest brother, Jonathan, is chairman of the board of Massachusetts General Hospital, a leading state institution.
Those connections already seem to be helping. A Globe analysis found that Josh’s campaign raised 2.5 times as much money last month as Wu’s did. But most of that came from donors outside Boston, including the owner of the Los Angeles Chargers.
3. …but also skepticism.
The Kraft family is largely new to electoral politics. It came closest when Robert chaired the Newton Democratic City Committee in his 20s. That inexperience has sometimes been a hindrance. In the 1990s, Robert failed to convince residents — or then-Mayor Tom Menino — to build a 69,000-seat football stadium in South Boston.
Robert also has a decades-long friendship with President Trump, which seems unlikely to endear Josh to most Bostonians. The elder Kraft said last year that the friendship ended after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. But Trump recently named Robert’s second wife, Dana Blumberg, to the board of the Kennedy Center in Washington.
Josh has also had to rebut suggestions that he’s merely a wealthy dilettante. “I read some of the comments — ‘Oh, rich kid … What does he know?‘” Josh told Mark. He says he advises voters to “take the time, ask around about me. Hear about me.”
4. Josh has retail-politician chops.
He may be a neophyte, but he appears to have a knack for pressing the flesh. Mark describes how Josh navigated the room during a recent campaign stop in Dorchester, shaking hands with each attendee and kneeling for longer conversations with seated guests.
His work has also inspired loyalty. Abens Maurice met Josh more than three decades ago as a 12-year-old Black kid growing up in South Boston. Josh helped him deal with school, relationships, and racism. “Josh has been my counselor, my big brother, my dad,” Maurice, now 47, said. When he heard Josh was running, he moved back to Boston from California to help.
5. The campaign will test the family’s preference for privacy.
Josh is divorced and won’t talk much about his adult daughters. His elder brothers also declined Mark’s interview requests. They may have inherited an instinct to dodge the public eye. Ensuring his family’s privacy was one reason Robert passed on running for Congress in 1970.
Josh has made a different choice. Yet despite his famous last name, he remains politically unknown to many Boston voters. Trying to fix that could strain his family’s inclination to stay behind the scenes. As Mark writes, “Few things are more destructive to privacy than a political campaign.”
Read more: Mark’s story is full of other fascinating details, like the awkwardness of campaigning in a different language and the lengths to which some Kraft associates went to avoid talking with a reporter. I recommend his full piece.
🧩 6 Across: “Encore!” | 🌤️ 48º More sun + clouds
POINTS OF INTEREST
Boston and Massachusetts
- Pushing back: Lawmakers criticized federal immigration agents for targeting undocumented immigrants in the state who don’t have criminal records.
- Artful farewell: Jill Medvedow, who had previously announced she was leaving as director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, departs next week. She leaves behind a museum that is the jewel of the Seaport.
- Cyclist update: Prosecutors are seeking charges against the driver of a vehicle that killed a cyclist along a dangerous stretch of Memorial Drive in Cambridge last fall.
- Decked out: Horticulturists draped the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s courtyard balconies with orange nasturtiums, an annual springtime rite.
- Fraud alert: Scammers posing as US government officials allegedly stole nearly $500,000 from a Newton doctor. (Yesterday’s Starting Point explained how scams are getting more sophisticated.)
Trump administration
- Immigration cases: A judge ordered the administration to halt its efforts to deport a Columbia University undergraduate who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. (NYT) And a free-speech group sued it for detaining Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia student who led the demonstrations.
- Show papers: Trump signed an executive order requiring people to prove they’re citizens when they register to vote, even though noncitizen voting is rare and already illegal. Lawsuits are likely. (Votebeat)
- Calm seas: The US agreed to ease some economic sanctions on Russia in exchange for a cease-fire with Ukraine in the Black Sea. (WSJ)
- Gender war: The ACLU sued the administration on behalf of transgender Americans who want passports with their preferred names and sex designations. (AP)
- Checking up: Five top CDC officials are leaving the agency. (The Hill)
The Nation and the World
- Measles update: A person with the virus visited D.C. and may have exposed others on an Amtrak train. (News4) Meanwhile, the outbreaks in Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma continue to grow. (Houston Chronicle)
- Now hiring: Florida Republicans are considering loosening labor laws to let kids fill jobs once held by undocumented immigrants. (USA Today)
- War of words: Republicans and disability rights groups criticized Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett for calling Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, who uses a wheelchair, “Hot Wheels.” Crockett says she wasn’t referring to his condition. (Politico)
- Israel-Hamas war: Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza protested Hamas and called for an end to the war, the biggest such protest since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. (CNN)
BESIDE THE POINT
By Teresa Hanafin, Globe Staff
📢 Dining din: When the people at the restaurant table next to you are loud-talkers, you really have just two choices. A food fight is not one of them.
🍽️ Just ignore them: Despite the loudmouths, you will still go out to eat, so here are 10 new and upcoming restaurants around Boston you shouldn’t miss.
👀 But her emails: Hillary Clinton posted a seven-word reaction to Trump’s classified text messages scandal. (X)
📺 Disturbing message: Netflix’s “Adolescence” series has taken the world by storm, highlighting the increase in bullying, misogyny, and sexual violence among young men. (Forbes)
🐧 Saved by the bird: Believe it or not, there are two films about men being rescued by their friendship with a ... penguin. The latest one isn’t that great.
🏠 Southern sprawl: A ranking and review site lists the best places in the US to buy a house based on home values, taxes, etc. Hope you like Alabama. (Niche)
💌 Love Letters: A woman who’s been dating a guy for four years can’t get him to answer: “What are we?” Meredith says to think about a change.
👩🏼🍳 Books and cooks: The BPL is looking for its second chef-in-residence after a successful first season teaching people “nutritional literacy.” (WBUR)
📥 Cool companies: Like your job? Nominations for the Globe’s annual Top Places to Work list are open.
Thanks for reading Starting Point.
This newsletter was edited by Teresa Hanafin and produced by Bill Geshwender and Diamond Naga Siu.
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Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at ian.philbrick@globe.com.