Hub votes cleave along race and class lines
Biden’s upset victory in Boston cut largely along race and class lines in the city
Biden’s upset victory in the city of Boston — by a razor-thin margin of 56 votes in the Election Department’s unofficial results — cut largely along race and class lines in the city, with black voters and higher-income whites voting for the former vice president and Latino voters and younger whites supporting Sanders.
Warren, who announced Thursday that she was dropping out of the presidential race, benefitted from the support of elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins and at-large City Councilor Michelle Wu. She won mainly in the Jamaica Plain/Hyde Park precincts in and around Ward 19 but won few precincts elsewhere in the city — a pattern that reflected her inability to win her home state overall and to score delegates in other primary contests.
Still, the top three vote-getters in Boston were all within 4,000 votes of each other. Biden and Sanders garnered 30.1% of the vote each. Warren had 27%.
In the Roxbury-based Ward 12, in which African Americans make up the majority of voters, followed by Latinos and whites, Biden won with 35.9 percent of the 3,441 ballots cast. Sanders was close behind with 32.4 percent of the vote. Warren trailed with 21.3 percent.
In majority African American Ward 14, which stretches from Grove Hall to Mattapan and has fewer Latino voters and almost no whites, Biden had a more commanding lead of 40.8 percent. Sanders had 31 percent and Warren, 18.2 percent.
In East Boston’s majority Latino Ward 1, Sanders had a commanding 2-to-1 lead over Biden that mirrored his landslide victories in the majority Latino cities of Chelsea (43.1% to 22%) and Lawrence (43.9% to 20.3%).
Sanders’ victories in Boston precincts included areas with high numbers of white college students, such as Allston/Brighton and Mission Hill. Continuing in a sweep across the middle of the city, Sanders took large segments of wards 8 and 12 in and around Dudley Square, portions of the South End, the Newmarket area, the Polish Triangle area of South Boston/Dorchester, and Columbia Point. In Dorchester, Sanders and Biden won precincts in the Bowdoin Street area while Sanders took most of the precincts along Dorchester Avenue through Fields Corner.
Biden did better in the southern portions of Dorchester, particularly in those areas with a whiter and more conservative voting population such as Ward 16, Precinct 12 in Neponset, where he bested Sanders 241 votes to just 79.
Warren scored few victories outside of the Jamaica Plain/Roslindale/Hyde Park/West Roxbury corridor where her elected endorsers and the group JP Progressives helped her campaign with its ground game. Warren maintained a campaign office in Hyde Square and her supporters held multiple events leading up to the election.
She won six West Roxbury precincts in Ward 20, four in Ward 11, one Fields Corner precinct in Ward 17, two Ward 13 precincts in Dorchester and the Fenway-based Ward 21, Precinct 1.
In Ward 19, which includes the wealthier sections of Jamaica Plain, including Pondside and Moss Hill, as well as Forest Hills and much of the neighborhood of Roslindale, Warren had a commanding 48 percent of the 8,852 votes cast. Sanders trailed in second with 31.1 percent. Biden garnered 21.9 percent of the vote there.
