On Tuesday, May 3, UMass Boston graduate Gabriela “Gigi” Coletta declared victory in a Boston City Council special election that occurred for District One. District One covers East Boston, Charlestown and the North End. Coletta will become the third female to fill this seat since its creation nearly 40 years ago in 1983.
Coletta will take the seat of State Senator Lydia Edwards, who endorsed the candidate. Coletta worked on Edwards’ campaign as campaign manager and Chief of Staff.
Two opponents faced Coletta in her race to victory: Tania Del Rio, Executive Director of the YWCA in Cambridge and the former Director of the Office of Women’s Advancement in Boston; as well as Jorge Mendoza, a North End restaurant owner fed up with Mayor Michelle Wu’s costly fee for outdoor seating at restaurants in the North End.
Del Rio and Coletta both ran as progressive Democrats, and both had similar positions on policies. Mendoza announced his campaign the week before the election and utilized a sticker-campaign in his efforts to be elected.
4,923 votes were cast by the time the polls closed on Tuesday. Coletta received 57 percent of the votes, Del Rio received 33 percent, and 10 percent of the votes were write-ins. Coletta won each neighborhood in the district, receiving 54 percent of votes in East Boston, 63 percent of the votes in Charlestown and 52 percent of votes in the North End. 32 percent of the votes were write-ins in the North End.
Because Coletta faces no Republican challenger, she has secured her seat on the Council already. Not long after the polls closed at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Coletta spoke to her supporters at a restaurant in East Boston.
“We made some ambitious plans together, and I’m expecting every single one of you to hold me accountable to them,” said Coletta. “I need you to come into City Hall with me.”
Coletta is 29 years old, and prior to being elected to the Boston City Council, worked for the New England Aquarium as their External Relations Manager. Most notably, Coletta worked as State Senator Edwards’ campaign manager in her historic 2017 campaign for City Council. After Edwards was elected, she became the first African American woman in history to represent District One, and appointed Coletta as her Chief of Staff.
Coletta also worked as Representative Adrian Madaro’s Community Liaison, as well as his Field Director during his 2015 special election campaign. In addition, Coletta served as the Associate Director of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, was elected in 2016 as the Democratic State Committeewoman for the First Suffolk and Middlesex district, and was elected in 2020 to the Ward One Democratic Committee.
During her time at UMass Boston, Coletta majored in Political Science and minored in Human Rights.
Coletta’s platform is based on improving Boston’s public education system, expanding affordable housing opportunities, building environmental justice, providing what her website refers to as “excellent constituent service,” and immigrant justice and solidarity.
“Fighting on behalf of her community is the only thing Gabriela ‘Gigi’ Coletta has ever known,” reads Coletta’s campaign website. “Raised by community advocates in East Boston, Gabriela grew up attending civic association meetings, neighborhood events, and even multiple protests against airport runway expansion with her mom, Nina.”
In order to learn more about Coletta, visit her campaign website at https://www.gabrielacoletta.com/