Courtesy of Rhea McTiernan Huge

A new candidate for Ward 1 alder has entered the fray: Rhea McTiernan Huge ’27, who is running as a Democrat and plans to officially file this week. 

Ward 1 includes eight of Yale’s 14 residential colleges, Old Campus and many University buildings, as well as around 85 businesses on Chapel and College Streets and half of the New Haven Green. 

For decades, Yale students and graduates have represented the district on the Board of Alders. Kiana Flores ’25 has served in the role since January 2024, but will not run again after her graduation. Another candidate, Jake Siesel ‘27, declared his candidacy for the two-year term on April 17. 

“I’m running because I love New Haven — I think it’s such an incredible city with so much vibrance and so much beauty, and I want to help it thrive in any way that I can,” McTiernan Huge told the News. 

McTiernan Huge grew up in New Haven’s Wooster Square, a downtown-adjacent neighborhood famous for its Italian American culture and cuisine. 

The oldest child of six, McTiernan Huge’s values, she explained, are informed by a wide variety of experiences, ranging from a gap year after high school spent doing “so much weeding” at farms in California and Europe to her participation in the Parish Choir of Trinity Church on the Green. 

When she arrived at Yale, where she is an environmental studies major, the aldership was not “on [her] radar,” McTiernan Huge said. But after Flores asked McTiernan Huge to be the ward’s Democratic Party co-chair, she began considering making a run for Flores’ seat herself. 

McTiernan Huge said that she has the support of “a few” alders, though she declined to specify which. Flores, however, wrote to the News to confirm her support for McTiernan Huge’s campaign.

“I fully endorse Rhea’s candidacy. I know for sure that she will make an incredible Ward 1 alder,” Flores said. 

McTiernan Huge currently serves as co-president of the Davenport College Council and vice president of the Elmseed Consulting Group, though both these roles will end in December, just before she may be sworn in as alder. 

Three of the past four Ward 1 alders ran in uncontested general and primary elections; all four ran uncontested for the Democratic primary. McTiernan Huge, however, will not. Her announcement follows the launch of Siesel’s campaign for the Democratic nomination last month. 

While McTiernan Huge is a New Havener, Siesel grew up in Charlotte, NC. He told the News in April that he would embrace his self-identified “outsider” status.

“I acknowledge that I don’t understand the intricacies of New Haven politics yet, but in the last two years, New Haven has become my home,” Siesel said last month.

Asked for comment on Monday, Siesel affirmed his commitment to representing Ward 1 at City Hall and pointed out that the Ward 1 race has been uncontested in the last two election cycles.

“I commend Rhea for joining the race and look forward to sharing our contrasting visions for New Haven and Ward 1,” he wrote to the News. “My commitment remains the same—to listen with humility, to engage meaningfully across the city, and to build together.”

McTiernan Huge told the News that she has already had a “wonderful” conversation with Siesel. Though she is “very confident,” she is also optimistic that, regardless of the outcome, a contested race will increase engagement and awareness within the ward. 

Although there are many channels for civic involvement in New Haven, McTiernan Huge acknowledged, she sees the aldership as something she can use to “help in a more expansive way.” She added that she hopes to engage as many people as possible — especially Yale students — in that process.

“There doesn’t seem to be the sense that students understand what the alders do, their role within the city, and the impact that that can have,” McTiernan Huge said. “Part of my hopeful aldership would be to bring students into that more.” 

Ward 1 has long been plagued by low voter turnout. In the 2023 general election, Flores received 83 votes of 106, in a year when 991 people were eligible to vote in Ward 1.

Ward 1 also straddles the centuries-old town-gown divide between Yale and New Haven, although McTiernan Huge insisted that there is “less divide than one would think.” Many New Haveners interact with various elements of Yale, she said, pointing to her own childhood visits to the Yale University Art Gallery and the Peabody Museum.

The so-called “Yale Alder” is traditionally able to focus on broader legislative goals — as opposed to everyday constituent services — because Yalies, who make up the vast majority of Ward 1 residents, already receive many such services from the University.

For McTiernan Huge, the most pressing issue currently facing New Haven is the threat of federal funding cuts to the Elm City’s educational programs and immigrant-focused nonprofits, along with its tenuous sanctuary city status. 

If elected, McTiernan Huge said that she would be focused on “navigating” the changes New Haven may have to make as a result of federal actions while still “attempting to keep its best qualities amidst that.” 

Another goal of hers would be “improving” New Haven Public Schools — which have, for the past several years, been suffering from a deferred maintenance crisis.

All but one of the past eight Ward 1 alders has served a single two-year term, roughly aligning with their time as an enrolled Yale student. This presents an inevitable constraint: by the time rookie alders learn to navigate the Board’s intricate legislative process, they depart. 

McTiernan Huge herself acknowledged earlier this year that a single-term tenure as an alder is “a difficult position to be in.” 

The next Ward 1 alder will be the last to face this challenge, as a recent revision to New Haven’s charter will increase the term length of alders from two years to four in 2027.

Connecticut’s municipal primaries are scheduled for Sept. 9, while the general elections will take place on Nov. 4.