Ariela Lopez, Contributing Photographer

Three Yale students are petitioning to run for Democratic Town Committee co-chairs in Ward 1 and Ward 22.

DTC Ward co-chairs are responsible for on-the-ground work in their neighborhoods, helping residents register to vote and otherwise supporting their respective alders. Importantly, they also endorse party candidates for local, state and federal office on the Democratic Town Committee. This year, Rhea McTiernan Huge ’27 and Norah Laughter ’26 are running for Ward 1 co-chairs, and Tenzin Jordan ’25 is running for the position in Ward 22. 

“I’m really interested to have their opinion on different city things I’m doing. And so, we’ll definitely be meeting on a regular basis,” Kiana Flores ’25, recently inaugurated alder for Ward 1, told the News. “[I will be checking in] on what they want to pursue, maybe it’s voter engagement at Yale and collaborating with others on that or [sharing] more information to Yalies about the city.”

Flores thinks that besides endorsing candidates and voter engagement, which will be especially significant during the 2024 presidential elections, future co-chairs will also work on the ongoing development of a comprehensive plan for New Haven from 2025 to 2035. 

When Flores started gathering her policy team — a group of Yale students who will advise her as an alder — she reached out to a couple of native New Haveners, including Huge, whom she had heard was an activist in New Haven Public Schools, and subsequently recruited her to run for a DTC Ward co-chair.

Huge said that as a student, she benefits from Yale, an institution that she said takes resources from the city. Thus, she hopes to build bridges between University and city communities, making the relationships between the two more mutually beneficial, though she did not provide specifics. 

Flores also reached out to Laughter, a Yale student from Kentucky, as she heard good things about her involvement in organizing with the undergraduate activist group Students Unite Now and Yale’s UNITE HERE unions. 

“As a sophomore on financial aid, I want to run for co-chair to hold Yale accountable to working class people on and off campus,” Laughter wrote to the News. “As a co-chair I would organize and welcome my peers to be involved with New Haven Rising and SUN in our fights for a healthier, accessible campus and for affordable rent, youth opportunity, and unionization across the city.”

Flores served as a co-chair last term, along with Simon Bazelon ’25 under former Alder Alex Guzhnay ’24. 

In Ward 22, Alder Jeanette Morrison has made it her priority since she was elected to have one of her two co-chairs be a Yale student. This year, the two candidates are Jordan, a former photographer editor at the News, and Tyrone Poole. Jordan, an organizer with Students Unite Now, currently holds the position of Ward 22 co-chair, which he filled in June. Poole, a social worker and graduate student at Southern Connecticut State University, has lived in Ward 22 for 14 years.

“I think I have the only Ward that’s approximately 50 percent permanent Dixwell residents and 50 percent Yale students and faculty,” Morrison said. “When I became Alder, one of the first instincts of mine was to try and bridge the gap between the residential community and the school community.”

Jordan told the News that he became involved in local politics in his sophomore year when he started organizing with SUN and New Haven Rising, organizations that he joined with the hope of holding the University accountable for respecting the rights of students and New Haven residents.

In the upcoming term, Jordan plans to use his position as co-chair to encourage more Yale students to get involved with local politics. He hopes to also have Morrison visit the Yale residential colleges in Ward 22 to speak with Yale students.

“Alder Morrison has been a great ally as a member of New Haven Rising,” Jordan wrote. “After learning about the work she has accomplished in Dixwell through SUN, I knew I wanted to be a part of continuing to bridge the gap between Yale and the Dixwell community.”

The candidates need to collect signatures from 5 percent of registered Democrats in their Wards — 34 for Ward 1 and 42 for Ward 22 — to qualify for the ballot. Jordan and Poole each told the News that they had already collected this amount. 

“I’m not sure I think it’s necessarily beneficial or harmful for the position to be filled by a Yale student,” Bazelon said. “More important is that the co-chairs are from New Haven and are committed to serving their constituents.”

Candidates in both Wards do not know of other candidates petitioning to run. Jason Bartlett, an organizer of “New Haven Agenda,” a group running for co-chair positions to reduce the power of Yale unions over DTC, said that the group has not found candidates to run with them in Wards 1 and 22.

Co-chair candidates need to collect signatures by Jan. 31.