BOSTON — It was a blowout loss, the kind where the crowd is already heading for the exits before the clock hits zero: Senate 33, Wu 5. And on MLK Day, Mayor Michelle Wu stepped back up to the microphone like she was filing a postgame protest.

According to POLITICO reporter Kelly Garrity, Wu called the Senate vote against Sen. Mike Rush’s amendment — which mirrored her property tax shift proposal — “devastating,” and she publicly shouted out the five senators who voted for it. After getting flattened on the Senate floor, she wasn’t exactly projecting “we’ll regroup.” She was projecting: the refs blew it.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu isn’t backing off the property tax shift proposal — at MLK Day breakfast, she calls the Senate vote agaisnt the Mike Rush amendment “devastating” and shouts out the five state Senators who voted for it. #bospoli https://t.co/gUU2sJjaJi

— Kelly Garrity (@kellygarrity3) January 19, 2026

Wu also tried to drape the loss in a bigger moral contrast. “We cannot let it be that our state and our community can find the funds to host the World Cup,” she said, “but not get worked up about our seniors not being being able to stay in their homes.” It was a clear attempt to turn a legislative defeat into a values fight — and to pressure lawmakers into treating her plan like the only acceptable form of relief.

But Senate opponents say the issue isn’t whether homeowners deserve help — it’s how to do it. One of the louder Senate voices pushing back has been Sen. Nick Collins, a Boston Democrat, who has argued that relief should come through a broader, statewide “tax shock” approach rather than a Boston-only maneuver that shifts more of the levy onto the commercial side. The Senate advanced that statewide track instead of Wu’s request.

And that’s where the optics get ugly for Wu. The Senate didn’t just vote her down — it ran up the score. Then, instead of pivoting, she used an MLK Day breakfast to relitigate the blowout, label it “devastating,” and reframe it as a moral emergency — as if a 33–5 loss was just a bad call that can be overturned with enough public pressure.

Bottom line: Wu is still selling the same fight after a public drubbing, while Collins and Senate leadership insist they’re pursuing tax relief through a different route. The vote was decisive. The stage was symbolic. And the message Wu delivered sounded less like a reset — and more like a sore loser demanding a rematch.