Election season has kicked off, and in Haines there are four candidates running for two seats on the borough assembly, vacated by Carol Tuynman and Jerry Lapp. KHNS is bringing those candidates to you in a series of profiles. Today we’ll hear from Tyler Huling who is running for a three year term.
Tyler Huling grew up in Anchorage, and visiting the upper Lynn Canal, and made Haines her permanent home last summer.
“Oh, Haines, I’ve been coming here since I was a kid. And I’ve been just totally under the spell since then.”
Photo courtesy of Tyler Huling
The 29-year-old returned to work seasonally throughout her twenties at the Haines Library and other odd jobs, while based in Homer, then moved full-time with her partner last year.
“And then each time I went back to Homer, the lens just sort of shifted a little bit, and it became harder and harder to leave.” Until eventually, my partner Dan and I decided that this is actually indeed the small town for us. So it feels like a very long term commitment,” Huling said.
This is her first campaign for public office. She says she’s running for the borough assembly to give back to the Haines community.
“First and foremost, it feels like an act of service,” she said. “I am just so honored to live here and to be a part of this community. And I love it so much. This feels like a really good way to be involved and give back. I’ve known that I wanted to step into some sort of role in the community for some time now and it wasn’t clear to me what exactly that was going to be. And then when this opportunity arose, it just felt like a bit of a natural fit and Like something that I wanted to explore.”
Huling currently works as a program analyst for the Alaska Department of Public Health, as part of the state’s COVID response effort.
“Essentially, my role is to analyze how well certain governmental structures are functioning, structures and processes, and then ultimately recommend ways in which they could perhaps function more smoothly, which I think is really great experience for stepping into something like local politics.”
In addition to that experience, she says her time serving in Uganda with the Peace Corps for two years has strengthened her skills and commitment to public service.
“I got the chance to develop a lot of cultural competency and the ability to work across really vast differences in perspective and life experience.”
Huling says she’s not focused on any single issue or agenda. She sees Haines’ hot button issues as interrelated and all important for Haines’ future.
“I take that position of not really having a main agenda or priority of my own, because I think that a role like this is really about representing the people who elected you and representing your constituency. I don’t think that Haines needs me to bring an agenda to the table. I think Haines needs people to show up, and really try to grapple with the entirety of the various challenges here.”
She says she also wants to represent Haines’ younger generation, and focus on making government processes decision-making more inter-generational and inclusive of different perspectives.
A live debate with the four candidates for Haines borough assembly will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday September 16, and will be broadcast live on KHNS. Questions for the candidates can be submitted in advance to reporter@khns.org.
