Former Local 888 member Kendra Hicks came in first in the preliminary vote for the Boston City Council’s District 6 seat. The former program coordinator with the Boston Public Health Commission is among the candidates that the local has endorsed for City Council.
Currently, Hicks serves as the director of radical philanthropy at Resist, a Boston-based foundation co-founded by Noam Chomsky, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor.
In terms of policy, Hicks calls for guaranteeing people’s rights to housing — which during the pandemic has increasingly become a public health issue. She also vows to fight for environmental and racial justice and for equity in education.
First-time candidate Hicks netted about half of the preliminary vote in District 6, which covers Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury. She is facing off against Mary Tamer, who landed about 43 percent of the vote in the preliminary.
A controversial flier picturing Tamer, an Arab-American, in color and Hicks, who is black, in black-and-white was reported on by The Boston Globe. The Tamer campaign flier shows the two of them with the title: “There are STARK DIFFERENCES between the candidates for District 6 City Council.”
Hicks has been endorsed by the Boston Teachers Union, SEIU 32BJ and the Greater Boston Labor Council, For more info on Hicks and her endorsements, see www.hicksfordistrictsix.com/.
Local 888’s Committee on Political Action also endorsed several candidates for at-large positions on the Boston City Council. All made it past the preliminary:
• Michael Flaherty, an incumbent councilor and one-time candidate for mayor.
• Ruthzee Louijeune, a former SEIU Local 1199 member who went on to serve as a senior counsel for the Democratic Party presidential campaign of Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
• Erin Murphy, a longtime teacher and Boston Teachers Union member.
• Bridget Nee-Walsh, a 15-year member of Boston’s Iron Workers Local 7.
Local 888 has also endorsed Tania Fernandes Anderson in the race for City Council in District 7, which covers Roxbury and parts of Dorchester and the South End. Anderson is the executive director of Bowdoin Geneva Main Streets, which aids local small businesses in Dorchester. For more info, see her website at https://taniaford7.com/home, says she grew up in District 7 as an undocumented immigrant living in poverty. For more information: on Michael Flaherty, see www.michaelflaherty.com/; Ruthzee Louijeune, see www.ruthzeeforboston.com/; Erin Murphy, see https://erinforboston.com/; and Bridget Nee-Walsh, see https://bridgetneewalsh.com/.