In the race to represent Roxbury on the Boston City Council, voters will choose between two political newcomers — the Rev. Miniard Culpepper and track coach Said Ahmed — as they vie for the seat left vacant by disgraced former Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson.
For some, the choice between Ahmed and Culpepper may pit age against experience. But many are also asking who can get results for District 7 — an area that includes high poverty rates, low homeownership and poor health outcomes.
Ahmed and Culpepper finished neck-and-neck in the September preliminary election for District 7, and now they are looking for ways to convince voters they’re the one to help solve those problems.
At a recent candidate forum in a Roxbury community room — the candidates’ fourth debate in as many days — Ahmed saw an opening. Their conversation turned to housing, a hot topic across Boston and in the poorer neighborhoods of District 7, which also includes slices of Dorchester, Fenway and the South End.
“I’m a renter,” Ahmed told the crowd of 60 people. “My brother Culpepper is (an) owner. Different — big difference. I am this far away from having my landlord say, ‘I increase the rent twice as much.’”
Ahmed is a 43-year-old Roxbury resident, a volunteer track and field coach and former Boston Public Schools employee, whose family fled Somalia and moved into the city’s public housing when he was a child. But his dig at 71-year-old Culpepper only topped his rival.
“You know why I own a home? Because my grandfather fought to buy that house on Seaver Street years ago,” Culpepper said. “They were the first Black family to own a home on Seaver Street.”
The Brandeis-trained attorney worked at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for over 20 years. During that time, he said, he advocated for civil rights and fought racial discrimination at the Boston Housing Authority.
Culpepper, who built a life around the Dorchester Baptist church his grandfather started, said his family once sold the Seaver Street property, but he was able to buy it back after it went into foreclosure.
He said he wants to help other residents buy, too. “I want to do the same thing for the young folks in this neighborhood, in this city, in D7.”
Residents lost their leading voice at City Hall when former councilor Fernandes Anderson was arrested in a kickback scheme and stepped down in July. She is now serving a one-month sentence in federal prison. Eleven candidates jumped in to compete for her seat. Culpepper and Ahmed were the top finishers in the preliminary, although combined, they captured only a third of the total votes. Both acknowledge the November election is a tossup, although Ahmed is quick to remind voters he did come in first in September — by 53 votes.
“Win is win,” he said after the forum. “You can’t take away whether it is one point or a thousand.”
In forums, questionnaires and one-on-one interviews, Ahmed and Culpepper are trying to define themselves not just on their personal experiences, but also on politics. Culpepper has a four-part “gentrification neutralization” plan to bring home ownership opportunities to people with low and moderate incomes.
“I think this district is a diamond in the rough,” Culpepper said after the forum. “And I think if you just polish that diamond a little bit, it will shine.”
Ahmed said he is largely focused on making apartment rentals more affordable and abundant. When it comes to tackling the problems of drugs and crime at Mass. and Cass, Culpepper said he’d push for a recovery campus and supervised injection sites, which are currently being Considered on Beacon Hill. Ahmed opposes that plan.
“If we want to build a safe injection area, we can build that in Somerville or Needham or somewhere else,” he said.
Their attacks on each other range from political to personal: Ahmed said Culpepper doesn’t understand the immigrant experience common to so many people in the district and argues his policies are out of touch, a dig at their age gap; Culpepper said he’s the candidate with the experience to write policy on day one.
On most issues, though, they agree. Both are Democrats, who’ve each run unsuccessfully for office once before (Ahmed ran for state rep, Culpepper for state senate). They largely favor Mayor Michelle Wu’s plan to redevelop White Stadium. Both oppose building a bus lane down the center of Blue Hill Avenue. They support rent control and the current requirement to include affordable housing units in new developments.
Both men also say they want to rebuild trust in the wake of the Fernandes Anderson scandal. At the Roxbury forum, the former councilor’s story was top of mind for some voters.
“That took me by surprise. That broke my heart,” resident Yvonne Long said.
She says she’s still deciding who to vote for: the coach in a dark blue suit and tie, who tirelessly knocks on voters’ doors? Or the longtime pastor with a large flock?
“We need somebody we can trust,” she said.
Culpepper has earned support in several quarters: He racked up endorsements from Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, US Rep. Ayanna Pressley, two former D7 preliminary opponents and the editorial boards of multiple local papers, among others.
Trust could be a harder sell for Ahmed. He’s facing accusations he harassed voters and a rival candidate’s staff during the preliminary election. He denies he did anything wrong. Several civic leaders also said he misleadingly implied they endorsed him in an Instagram post, the The Boston Globe reported.
Court records show Ahmed has two debt judgments against him in local courts. One, for $3,300 he declined to comment on, while the other, for $8,500 he said resulted from co-signing a student loan for a young woman in his community.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu vowed to turn her focus to council races after cruising to her second term but has not made an endorsement in District 7.
“I have spoken with both candidates and know that they are each running on a set of issues that is in line with their vision for how to move the district forward,” she told reporters recently. “We’ll be following the race very closely.”
Whoever wins has a big job ahead, voters say. And they’re eager to have a councilor at City Hall they can count on.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated which Boston neighborhood Ahmed lives in. He lives in Roxbury.
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