Setti Warren, Massachusetts’ First Black Elected Mayor, Dies at 55

Massachusetts is mourning the death of Setti Warren, the first Black person elected mayor of Newton and a prominent voice in public service. He was 55.

Harvard University announced Warren’s passing on Nov. 2. The school did not disclose a cause or time of death. “Setti was a beloved member of our community, and we are devastated by this heartbreaking news,” Jeremy Weinstein, dean of the Kennedy School, and David Deming, dean of Harvard College, said in a joint statement.

“Whenever he saw a challenge, he ran toward it, not away from it, and our university and country are better for it.”

An Iraq War veteran, Warren made history in 2009 when he won the Newton mayoral race, breaking barriers as the first Black elected mayor in Massachusetts. He served until 2018. Before City Hall, he was deputy state director for U.S. Sen. John Kerry from 2004 to 2008 and held roles in the Clinton administration.

At Harvard, he led the Shorenstein Center as executive director and, in 2022, became director of the Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics.

Tributes poured in from across the state. U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, who grew up in Newton, recalled Warren’s retail politics after a bitter fight over a costly high school project: “Setti got out there and was just joyful, door-to-door, one-on-one conversations, knitting the city back together… Then Setti went to City Hall and he delivered; he did it.”

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley remembered a “dear friend” and “dedicated public servant,” adding, “He radiated light and optimism… Setti had so much life left to live, milestones to experience, hearts to touch, and lives to change.”

Warren often framed his mission simply. “What I feel most passionate about is making people’s lives better, and I wanted to do it right here in my own community,” he told The New York Times after his 2009 victory.

He is survived by his wife, Tassy, co–executive director and chief strategy officer at Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, and their children, Abigail and John.