Annissa Essaibi George

Annissa Essaibi George
Essaibi George in 2023
Member of the Boston City Council at-large
In office January 4, 2016 – January 3, 2022
Preceded by	Stephen J. Murphy
Succeeded by	Ruthzee Louijeune
Personal details
Born	(1973-12-12) December 12, 1973 (age 50) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	Bentley College Boston University (BA) University of Massachusetts, Boston (MEd)
Signature
Website	Campaign website
Essaibi George's voice Recorded February 2, 2018; first published February 7

Annissa Essaibi George^[a] (born December 12, 1973)^[1] is an American politician who served as an at-large member of the Boston City Council. First elected in 2015, she served on the council from 2016 to 2022. She was a candidate in the 2021 Boston mayoral election. She placed second in the nonpartisan primary, but was defeated in the general election by fellow city councilor Michelle Wu. Since November 2022, Essaibi George has served as the president of the Board of Directors of the nonprofit organization Big Sister Boston.

Born and raised in Boston, Essaibi George began her career as a student services liaison at the Boston Private Industry Council. After receiving a master's in education, she later entered the field of education and worked as a social studies teacher at East Boston High School. A Democrat, Essaibi George entered electoral politics by running unsuccessfully for an at-large seat on the Boston City Council in 2013. Two years later, she won election to an at-large seat in the 2015 Boston City Council election. She was reelected to the Boston City Council in both 2017 and 2019. On the Boston City Council, she was regarded to be an ally of Mayor Marty Walsh, who had been an acquaintance of Essaibi George dating back to their childhoods. Having been first elected on a social services-centered platform, Essaibi George undertook work in that realm. She founded the Boston City Council's Homelessness, Mental Health, and Recovery Committee in 2016, which was later disestablished by in 2020 during the council presidency of Kim Janey to the disagreement of Essaibi George. Essaibi George organized needle clean-up drives. She opposed the idea of the city establishing supervised consumption sites (in the mold of supervised injection sites) as a response to public safety concerns regarding drug use. Martin J. Valencia of The Boston Globe partially credited Essaibi George's advocacy as a city councilor as contributing to the city acting to supply each of the city's public schools with a full-time social worker and a full-time nurse.

In January 2021, Essaibi George announced her candidacy in that year's election for mayor of Boston. Her candidacy was considered centrist in comparison to that of the other leading candidates. She placed second in the election's nonpartisan primary, outperforming then-acting mayor Kim Janey and other candidates including Andrea Campbell and John Barros. She faced Michelle Wu in the general election, and was defeated by Wu by a landslide.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).