Jake Wilson to be Somerville’s next mayor, unofficial results show

Local News

Wilson received the most votes in September’s preliminary election, with his campaign running on the goal of “building a Somerville that works for everyone,” according to his website. 

City Councilor Jake Wilson is set to be Somerville’s next mayor after receiving 11,185 votes, according to Somerville’s unofficial election results. 

His opponent Willie Burnley Jr., who received 9,054 votes, told The Boston Globe Tuesday night that he had called Wilson to concede and congratulate him.

After two-time Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne failed to move past the September preliminary, city councilors Wilson and Burnley took their spots on the Nov. 4 ballot. 

Wilson, 48, was the first to announce his mayoral campaign against Ballantyne in December 2024, almost a year before the election.  

The father of two received the most votes in September’s preliminary election, with his campaign running on the goal of “building a Somerville that works for everyone,” according to his website. 

“The big, overarching thing I want to do is get our city services up to the level that the City of Somerville should be providing,” Wilson told the Globe in September. “That will allow us to achieve policy gains where we are facing multiple crises: Our housing crisis, the crisis of street safety, and the rodent issues we have in the city that really impact people’s lives.”

As mayor, Wilson will face issues including how to combat the city’s growing homeless crisis and the increase in open drug use and violence, topics at the forefront of conversation during a neighborhood public safety meeting in early October. 

“First of all, we need to make sure that the shelter gets opened like this. This should have been mediated,” Wilson previously told Boston.com. “Regional problems demand regional solutions. You can’t have communities off doing their own thing. It’s got to be, we got to coordinate the programs, the services, the policies, otherwise you end up with situations like this.”

Wilson has worked in media and communications, and also served as the president of non-profit Somerville Youth Soccer, according to his website.

While on the council, he served as chair of the Finance Committee and the Rodent Issues Special Committee, according to his website.

“We know people love this city. We love Somerville. That’s why we pay so much money to live here and put up with the construction, with the rats. But people felt very closed off from their mayor,” he told the Globe. “They’re looking for someone to come in who’s going to be available to them.”