Elias Theodore and Norah Laughter will go head to head today following Rhea McTiernan-Huge’s dropping out over the weekend.
Raleigh Adams
Original Reporting Editor, The Buckley Beacon
Elias Theodore (YC ‘27) and Norah Laughter (YC ‘26) will face off today in the Democratic primary to be Ward 1’s representative on New Haven’s Board of Alders—the city’s 30-person municipal legislative body—for the two-year term beginning next year.
On Saturday evening, Rhea McTiernan-Huge (YC ‘27), who had been seeking the Democratic nomination since the summer, suspended her campaign and endorsed Theodore.
The Board of Alders is responsible for crafting the city’s budget and local laws, and typically considers between 700 and 950 bills per year. The first Ward, currently represented by Kiana Flores, features roughly a third of Yale’s campus, including the New Haven Green, Old Campus, Cross Campus, and the Jonathan Edwards, Branford, Saybrook, Pierson, and Davenport undergraduate residential colleges. Starting in 2027, Alderpersons’ terms will be extended from two to four years.
Theodore, a New Haven local and graduate of Wilbur Cross High School, is running a campaign focused on affordability, which features a pledge to hike Yale’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) to the city of New Haven, a payment program that supplants Yale’s payment of local property taxes.
“As long as Yale has a $42 billion endowment, and 25 percent of New Haveners are living below the poverty line, Yale needs to pay more,” Elias told The Buckley Beacon in an interview. “Having an informed student body, having more budget transparency, being able to tell Yale if you don’t give us more here’s what we’ll have to cut, but if you give us more here’s what we can do. … New Haven hasn’t been able to be organized enough to present that.”
Following the passage of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July, Yale’s endowment tax increased from 1.4 to 8%, a hurdle Theodore’s proposed PILOT increase will have to clear come next year. Theodore’s campaign website also name-drops several local projects of interest, including improvements to the New Haven Green.
“There is $4 million set aside in city hall right now to invest in improving the New Haven green,” Theodore told The Beacon. “I want to ensure that investment is guided by community input, especially of our unhoused community. Their voices have not been considered enough in city hall.” Theodore is an Urban Studies major in Jonathan Edwards College.
Laughter, Theodore’s opponent and a Kentucky native, is campaigning on a message of “racial and economic justice,” and is running on a slate with Frank Douglass, the city’s Alderperson for Ward 2. Laughter has earned endorsements from Alder Douglass, Ellen Cupo (Ward 8), and Jeanette Morrison (Ward 22). Laughter is also supported by the progressive labor advocacy group New Haven Rising.
Laughter’s pro-union platform seeks aggressive hikes on Yale’s monetary contribution to the city, and also promises to “fight federal attacks on public education alongside teachers, librarians, and young students.” Such pledges have earned Laughter the support of New Haven Federation of Teachers president Leslie Blatteau, who is herself a social studies teacher and member of the Connecticut-wide Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective.
“I have union members handing out flyers for me right now talking to folks about why the Ward 1 race matters for them and for the city and for students in solidarity,” Laughter told the New Haven Independent. Laughter declined The Beacon’s multiple requests for comment or an interview.
“Norah is very much running on a single issue, which is to get Yale to pay more,” Theodore said of Laughter’s platform. “I really want Yale to pay more, too. But I think I have presented a vision for more than that will, I think, really help make downtown thrive.”
As the two candidates head into Tuesday’s primary, Theodore pledges to maintain open lines of communication with constituents—both on and off Yale’s campus.
“Part of the reason I am running is I know the most important traits in an Alder are responsiveness, communication, and accountability,” Theodore told The Beacon. “You represent 4,500 people, you can have a relationship with most of those people if you do a good job. It’s a very transient voter base in Ward one, but I have made a valiant effort and I will keep doing it to try and connect with those permanent residents who live in our apartment buildings.”
In addition to McTiernan-Huge, who extended her support for Theodore on Saturday evening at a local Mexican restaurant, Theodore has earned the support of Jake Seisel (YC ‘27), another Yalie who suspended his bid for the alder seat.
“Elias has shown his ability in engaging students in issues that matter in New Haven in a way that I don’t think has been done in a really long time,” McTiernan-Huge told The Beacon. “I truly think that, as alder, he would take (and has taken) full advantage of the opportunity to shift how students are engaging with the city civically.”
In the closed Democratic primary, polls at the Free Public Library are set to close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday evening.