November 4, 2025
Rep. Ayanna Pressley remembered her “dear friend” as a “dedicated public servant” who she had spoken with the night before his passing.
The state of Massachusetts is in mourning as news spread of Setti Warren, the first Black man elected as mayor of Newton, passing away at 55, The Boston Globe reports.
Leadership at Harvard University, where Warren served as director of the Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, made the announcement Nov. 2 without disclosing a cause or time of death. “Setti was a beloved member of our community, and we are devastated by this heartbreaking news,” Jeremy Weinstein, Kennedy School Dean, and David Deming, Dean of Harvard College, said in a statement, corresponding with a post on X.
The statement continued, highlighting Warren “as an example to us all.” “Whenever he saw a challenge, he ran toward it –– not away from it –– and our university and country are better for it,” the statement continued. The Iraq War veteran served as a bold and prominent voice in politics at the local, state, and federal levels. According to WBUR, Warren broke barriers in the state after being elected Newton’s mayor in 2009, becoming the first Black elected mayor in Massachusetts.
U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, who grew up in the city, remembers Warren as being a fighter at a time when Newton needed him most following a bitter battle over building a pricey high school. Auchincloss described his late friend as someone who made “ each person he was talking to feel like they mattered,” and followed through, honoring the door-knocking dynamic that inspired him to run for Congress. “Setti got out there and was just joyful. Just door-to-door, one-on-one conversations, knitting the city back together,” the congressman said.
“ Then Setti went to City Hall and he delivered; he did it,” Auchincloss said. “And that’s what we need more of … these, these gritty one-on-one conversations where we hear what people care about and then we go and do something about it.”
In an interview with The New York Times at the time of the election, Warren said his focus was to change the lives of those in his community. “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 said in 2009.
Warren held the top spot for two years until 2018. Prior to that, he served as the deputy state director for Sen. John Kerry’s Massachusetts office from 2004 to 2008, and he also held positions in the Clinton administration.
At Harvard, he led the Institute of Politics from 2022 after serving as the executive director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy.
Notes of sorrow were showcased on social media from state leaders, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who remembered her “dear friend” as a “dedicated public servant” whom she had spoken with the night before his passing. “I am heartbroken to learn of the sudden transition of my dear friend and former Kerry colleague, Setti Warren. There will be plenty of time to remember him as a proud Democrat, dedicated public servant, and convener, but for now, I just want to remember the decent, kind, and good man that he was,” she wrote on X.
“Setti was a loving son, brother, dedicated husband, and father. He was always ready with a hug, an easy and deep laugh, and kind eyes that twinkled. He is someone you were always happy to see coming your way. He radiated light and optimism. Setti had so much life left to live, milestones to experience, hearts to touch, and lives to change.”
Warren leaves behind his wife, the co-executive director and chief strategy officer at Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, Tassy, and their two children, Abigail and John.
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