PROGRAMMING NOTE: The Scrum won’t publish Monday. We’ll see you again Tuesday after the holiday weekend. In the meantime, stay in touch: kelly.garrity@globe.com.
For those following Tuesday’s down-ballot races, Persis Yu’s primary upset of state Senator Mike Rush came out of left field.
Her insurgent campaign flew largely under the radar outside of the district stretching from West Roxbury into Boston’s southern suburbs, despite Mayor Michelle Wu coming to the moderate incumbent’s defense in the very district in which she lives.
That was due, in part, to Wu’s other electoral pursuits: The second-term mayor backed two first-time candidates who were trying to take down sitting senators, including one of Rush’s fellow Senate leaders.
“People outside the district didn’t know what was happening,” said Rob Orthman, a Yu backer and co-director of Progressive West Roxbury/Roslindale. “And we were perfectly fine keeping it that way. We did not want to raise attention to this to suddenly start seeing, you know, all the money and support for the incumbent start to flow in.”
Yu was one of a tiny percentage of candidates Tuesday to successfully take out an incumbent by running to their left.
With no Republican on the ballot in November, she effectively clinched the Norfolk and Suffolk seat with her primary victory, taking out not just an eight-term incumbent but also Senate President Karen Spilka’s handpicked majority whip.
So who is this first-time candidate turned (likely) senator-elect — and how did she turn a quiet primary challenge into Tuesday’s biggest down-ballot shocker?
Yu jumped into the race last year, motivated in part by President Trump’s reelection in 2024. In the current political climate, “we need to have steadfast leaders who are protecting our rights, especially on abortion access, especially on LGBTQ+ issues, and especially on immigrant rights,” she said.
But the campaign wasn’t simply a referendum on social issues. Much of her pitch centered on affordability concerns, and, according to Yu, frustration with what voters saw as a Legislature that wasn’t getting enough done. Lawmakers’ resistance to a voter-approved law giving the state auditor the authority to probe the Legislature often came up organically on the trail, Yu said.
“There was a dissatisfaction with the status quo,” the Hyde Park Democrat said. “And people want to know what is actually happening in the Legislature.”
Yu, a Boston Public Schools parent and mother of two, had been active on Boston’s Ward 18 Democratic Committee, but first popped up on Orthman’s radar last spring, he said, as she met with progressive groups around the district to test the waters on a potential state Senate bid.
A consumer protection attorney, “she always likes to say [that] she’s sued the last few presidential administrations on behalf of student loan borrowers, both Democratic and Republican,” Orthman said.
Her campaign was up against some early headwinds. While Rush started off with a cash advantage, Yu outraised him during the campaign, pulling in a little over $156,000 since the start of last September, compared to Rush’s roughly $148,000.
Rush, an Iraq War veteran who first won his seat in 2010, also had some serious institutional support from both Wu and Governor Maura Healey.
The mayor’s support for the more moderate Rush normally would’ve been somewhat surprising. But Rush helped shepherd Wu’s closely watched property tax shift legislation on Beacon Hill, pushing an amendment that the Senate ultimately rejected in January.
That denial prompted Wu to put her political power on the line by backing challengers to Senators Nick Collins and William Brownsberger, and turning those races into something of a proxy war. But her presence was less notable in Rush’s region — and ultimately, didn’t seem to sway voters in her city.
Yu outperformed Rush in Boston, according to unofficial results, earning 57 percent of the vote in the city while Rush carried parts of the district beyond.
“The kind of voter who is highly engaged and supports Michelle is unlikely to be swayed to vote for Rush by her endorsement,” said Matt McCloskey, a Yu volunteer focused on elections data. The district itself changed as well when state lawmakers crafted new maps in 2021, McCloskey said.
“It’s definitely an easier district for a progressive to win now than it would have been in 2020,” he said.
Then there was another notable moment days ahead of the election: When Rush skipped a debate set up by the Dedham and Westwood Democratic town committees, apparently to present a check for state funding in another town in the district.
The move handed Yu and her supporters a ready-made cudgel to hammer Rush heading into the home stretch of the campaign.
Rush has not commented publicly since the loss, and efforts to reach him Thursday were not successful.
Yu, however, said she spoke to Wu briefly Wednesday, and the mayor “was very gracious.”
“It’s a good place-starting conversation, and I definitely look forward to having further ones in the future,” Yu said.
Wu, in a statement, said she offered Yu her “full partnership and support,” and that she looked forward to “working with her as my new state senator to deliver on a shared agenda for the district and the city.”
Notably, Yu isn’t pitching herself as some type of Wu agitator. Case in point: She said that she, too, is supportive of the mayor’s tax shift proposal.
DOWN FOR A COUNT: Back to one of those other Boston-area state Senate races ...
The still too-close-to-call Brownsberger-Daniel Lander contest appears to be headed for a recount.
With just four votes separating the two, per unofficial tallies as of Friday morning, both the Belmont Democrat and the Wu-backed Lander requested a recount, the Globe’s Niki Griswold reports.
It’s a quick turnaround for everyone involved. Brownsberger and Lander had until Thursday afternoon to file their requests. If their petitions advance, local election officials have to complete the recount by 5 p.m. next Friday.
TRUMP BUMP: Trump hails Ed Markey win in Mass.: ‘I couldn’t stand Moulton’ by Sam Brodey, The Boston Globe: Speaking at a White House dinner for Republican candidates Wednesday night, Trump hailed what he called Senator Ed Markey’s 30-point “landslide” win over US Representative Seth Moulton in Tuesday’s primary election.
ABORTION ON THE (2028) BALLOT? Antiabortion activists launch effort to suspend new Mass. abortion law, put repeal before voters by Chris Van Buskirk, The Boston Globe: Antiabortion activists in Massachusetts filed paperwork with the state launching a bid to suspend and eventually seek the repeal of a law that makes it easier for women to receive an abortion later in pregnancy. That move sets up a potential ballot battle in 2028, and more immediately, kick-starts a scramble to stop the law before it can even take effect.
CHANGING LANES: More parking, fewer bike lanes: City of Boston, T release new Blue Hill Avenue redesign by Diti Kohli, The Boston Globe: Residents and politicians have for years railed against the city of Boston’s plan to reconfigure Blue Hill Avenue and the impacts that proposed bus and bike lanes could wrought on the busy corridor through the heart of the Black Boston.
Now, city officials and the MBTA say they’ve funneled those concerns into a new design that preserves a controversial center-running bus lane, but significantly expands the portions of the boulevard that would have two traffic lanes on each side, while shrinking the amount of proposed bike lanes.
A LITERAL POWER PLAY: The Globe’s Jon Chesto and Shirley Leung have a look at the unusual financing deal that would grease the wheels for an overhaul of the Fairmount Line — and which in turn could help determine the future of the entire commuter rail system.
The T is working with some familiar faces (commuter rail operator Keolis) and some new ones (British infrastructure firm Rock Rail) in an effort to electrify the line that runs along a nine-mile corridor through Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park, they reported in Thursday’s edition of Power Play.
BREAKING BAD: This Boston firm owes $100,000 because Beacon Hill delayed a Trump tax break. It’s not alone. by Larry Edelman, The Boston Globe: Thousands of Massachusetts businesses — it’s impossible to say exactly how many — may be facing large tax bills as a result of the state’s decision to “decouple” from the R&D deduction provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the GOP’s massive tax and spending bill that President Trump signed in July 2025.
Local companies can still claim the full R&D deduction, which reduces taxable income, for 2025 and again this year. But they cannot do so on state returns, leaving them with higher taxable income — and a bigger Department of Revenue tax bill. A Department of Revenue spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
HEALTHY DEBATE: One post-primary sign of life on Beacon Hill this week: Lawmakers tasked with hashing out the differences between House and Senate versions of legislation aimed at addressing violence against health care workers kicked off negotiations Thursday, the State House News Service reports. As for the other big healthcare legislation reshaping primary care in Massachusetts that lawmakers punted into conference? Negotiations haven’t gotten rolling yet, following an end-of-formal-session kerfuffle between House leadership and the chamber’s committee chair.
Boston federal judge blasts Trump administration’s changes to international student visas by Michaela Towfighi, The Boston Globe.
Cambridge will pay residents $1,000 to join ‘civic assembly’ on whether to use ShotSpotter by Spencer Buell, The Boston Globe.
What a canceled battery project in Tewksbury says about New England’s aging power grid by Miriam Wasser, WBUR.
SJC says Nahant can take Northeastern University land by Jennifer Smith, CommonWealth Beacon.
New Bedford Police chief recommends termination of 2 officers found to use Flock to track romantic partners by Anastasia E. Lennon, The New Bedford Light.
Former Quincy official’s misconduct dates back to 2014, ex-employees reported by Peter Blandino, The Patriot Ledger.
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This newsletter was edited and produced by Matt Stout.
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Kelly Garrity can be reached at kelly.garrity@globe.com.