Kelly Garrity, “Yu who? Meet the progressive who pulled off a Boston-area upset,” Boston Globe, September 4, 2026.

“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, 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.