Latoya Gayle is a newcomer to running for office in Boston. But she’s not new to being a voice in the rooms where policy gets shaped.
She’s a longtime community activist running to unseat state Senator Nick Collins of South Boston. Collins has long been a Beacon Hill adversary of Mayor Michelle Wu, which has led to his race being framed as a proxy war between Collins and Wu.
But to the supporters who packed an Italian restaurant near Ashmont Wednesday morning to watch Wu offer her endorsement, Gayle offers more than just an opportunity to unseat a foe.
To her supporters, Gayle is viewed as a candidate who will fight for residents they say Collins ignores.
“My experience has been he’s unserious,” said Kate Warren Barnes, a longtime community advocate and college lecturer. “He’s unserious, he’s unresponsive, and he hasn’t been the solutions-focused leader that this district needs.”
Gayle, 47, has spent years as an advocate for families and young children. Currently, she works as director of advocacy for a nonprofit called Neighborhood Villages, pushing for changes in the state’s child care system.
Like a surprising number of influential Black Bostonians, Gayle grew up in Springfield, as the youngest of seven sisters. She has raised her own family of four children in the South End and in Dorchester, where the family now lives.
Her parents migrated to Massachusetts from Alabama, seeking refuge from the oppressive racial politics of the Deep South. She said her run for office has been inspired, in part, by a feeling the progress her parents’ generation fought for is slipping away.
“I think people my age grew up and we were taught so many things that we’re dealing with today were behind us,” Gayle told me. “And not that the world is perfect, but that we weren’t gonna go back. And it seems like we’re on a backwards trajectory right now.”
For years, friends had casually suggested she think about running for office, but she had always brushed the idea aside. She was already involved as a Boston Public Schools parent active in educational issues and raising her family. But this year she finally came to believe that she had reached the right moment in her life to go for it.
That was largely driven by her feeling Collins was too conservative on many issues, among them rent stabilization and driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants. She’s running to be a more progressive, community-centered voice.
The First Suffolk district has an interesting history. For years the domain of legendary powerbroker William M. Bulger, it was redrawn long ago to reflect a changing population. Bulger was followed by Linda Dorcena Forry, a Haitian American, who held the seat for five years, until being succeeded by Collins in 2018.
In perception, it has reverted to being a seat identified with South Boston because of Collins. But the district also includes part of the South End, Chinatown, downtown, and much of Dorchester, making it one of the most diverse in the Massachusetts Senate. That’s a big part of the reason Collins, who gradually become a darling of the downtown business establishment, is viewed as perhaps more vulnerable than his supporters assume.
As for the mayor, the mutual contempt between Collins and Wu is hardly a secret. Not only did he expend every possible ounce of political capital to kill Wu’s attempts to raise revenue by shifting more of the property tax burden away from residential homeowners and onto commercial property, he relentlessly attacked Wu in the process.
That played well behind closed doors at the State House, where cities and towns are often treated like pawns. But Wu is clearly betting that it will prove less popular with voters.
In endorsing Gayle Wednesday, she openly accused Collins of siding with corporate interests at the expense of his constituents in a sleazy backroom negotiation.
“We are tired of the state Senate saying no to everything,” she said. “We are tired of our state Senate offloading their elective power to unelected corporate interests to negotiate against Boston families.”
Gayle is a definite underdog in a race against a well-known and well-funded incumbent. But Wu’s support is beyond valuable. And underdogs sometimes win.
Gayle said this moment demands change. And she believes she can be that change.
“If there’s ever a time to do it, now is that time.”
Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at adrian.walker@globe.com. Follow him @Adrian_Walker.