The Boston Teachers Union doesn’t expect to make an endorsement in the District 3 preliminary.

A spokesperson for the city’s largest municipal union, which has more than 8,000 members, confirmed in an email to the Reporter that there are no plans to endorse a candidate in the Sept. 12 preliminary.

The field of candidates includes current and former teachers: Joel Richards, a member of the teachers union who lives in Fields Corner, teaches at the Blackstone School in the South End. He is also a pastor. Barry Lawton is a retired teacher and former State House aide who taught at East Boston High School. He lives in Savin Hill/Uphams Corner.

The teachers union, which is headquartered in Dorchester’s Columbia Point area, endorsed Richards in 2021, when he ran in District 4, a seat that covers parts of Dorchester and Mattapan. Brian Worrell, a small business owner, and Evandro Carvalho, a former state representative, won the preliminary, with Worrell triumphing in the November election.

The City Council’s recent redrawing of district boundaries, known as redistricting, flipped Richards’ home precinct into District 3. Richards announced his run for the District 3 seat in December.

While Richards doesn’t appear to be getting the formal endorsement before the preliminary, fellow union members and teachers have been donating to his campaign, according to a review of publicly available campaign finance filings. The union’s executive vice president donated $200 last December. The Boston Teachers Union political action committee (PAC) also gave $500 to Richards in December, the same amount they gave to his District 4 campaign in 2021.

Lawton, who has run for state representative, said the union has endorsed him in his previous campaigns. "I have been honored to be a union member for over 30 years, while educating a generation of young Bostonians," he said. "My values and principles remain intact."

Frank Baker, who has held the District 3 seat since his election in 2011, said in April he isn’t running for another two-year term.

The field of District 3 candidates includes Adams Village’s John Fitzgerald, who works for the Boston Planning and Development Agency; Meetinghouse Hill activist Jennifer Johnson; Savin Hill labor lawyer Matt Patton; former education nonprofit leader Ann M. Walsh of Lower Mills; and housing activist Rosalind Wornum of Ashmont.

Unions that have formally endorsed are divided: SEIU 888, which represents city workers, endorsed Patton, while the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, IBEW Local 103, Iron Workers Local 7 and Laborers Local 223 are backing FitzGerald. The United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 9A endorsed Richards earlier this month.

The Sept. 12 preliminary will winnow the field to two candidates, who will face off in the November 7 final election.

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