By the time the Ward 1 Alder debate on Wed., Sept. 3—hosted by the Yale Daily News in the United Methodist Church on College Street—wrapped up after ninety long minutes, it felt as though the blunt sterile lights might as well have flashed electric blue. The building’s humming ambience might well have broken into a chorus of Instagram Reels, and the white walls might well have become plastered with the gold and green of Elias Theodore’s, JE ’27 campaign.
With his trademark boundless enthusiasm and his widely-scoped platform, Theodore has made himself far and away the best candidate for Ward 1 alder, one who promises to tear down the precedent of this position. In New Haven, the city council is composed of thirty alders, who all represent distinct districts, or “wards,” in the city and argue in the legislature for the needs of their respective constituency. Ward 1 is a unique case: containing eight of Yale’s residential colleges, Old Campus, part of the New Haven Green and 85 businesses, the population is over 80% Yale students. For many years, the Ward 1 alder has been elected after an uncontested election, served for two training-wheel years, and left without much trace. A few dozen folks might have voted, a few more might have read the weekly alder newsletter, but most never bothered to learn more.
But, given that this year’s election is contested, with three strong and viable candidates, hundreds of students have registered to vote, and thousands have learned about the political structure of the city they live in. And the driver of these educational and registrational waves has come from Theodore. His hyperactive Instagram Reels campaign—a stream of street interviews and explanations of the voting process—helped gain more followers than both his fellow-candidates combined. This, coupled with the aggressive tabling strategy of sitting on Old Campus for 40 total hours in the five days after first-year move-in, has helped his campaign register over 200 new voters.
“Let my campaign be a preview to how I will serve,” said Theodore towards the end of the debate. With joy, engaged awareness, and constant energy, he meant. His fellow-candidates held their own: Rhea McTiernan Huge, DC ’27 has run an earnest campaign and waxed often on Wednesday about her love for her home city and her hopes to help legislate, and Norah Laughter, PC ’26 spoke like a seasoned political figure, tying all her responses back to her “coalition” and her “Fully-Funded City” platform of fighting for the laborers and unions of New Haven. But so much tying knotted up her responses to unexpected questions and the quietness of McTiernan Huge’s voice got almost every answer swallowed by that pesky humming of the old church. Theodore maintained energy, confidently firing off historical data and anecdotes from both the campaign and his entire life as a New Haven resident to support his pitch to the hundred-person live audience and the dozens more watching on the YDN’s Instagram Live.
Theodore understands the position of Ward 1 Alder: he carries the voice of Yale undergraduates in the city legislature and returns with the voice of the city to proffer forth to those same students. All three candidates agree on one point: the monetary and political relationships between Yale and New Haven are at the heart of this election, and Yale must pay more, do more to support the city its students all call home. Every Yale student must become an informed and active citizen of their chosen city. Laughter has done great work in the past organizing with laborers and unions in New Haven, including helping to assemble the Ward 1 Democratic Committee. But, as Theodore pointed out, it was not “something that brought new people into this process.” Laughter, in other words, touts herself for action that, were she an alder, would fail to fulfill the position’s primary role of supporting their constituents. Doing so is Theodore’s specialty.
He used his debate responses to highlight his key promises: reinvesting in the Green as a community space, making Yale increase its voluntary donations to the city, and building more affordable residences to house every New Haven resident. But through his body language, his energy, and his campaign, we are confident his tenure as alder will be defined most by engagement, by being a relatable and reachable public figure, so New Haveners young and old, temporary or generational, can talk to him and come away feeling heard.
The Yale Herald heartily endorses Elias Theodore for Ward 1 alder, and urges you to vote in this election.