Not Your Average Alderman

It's Election Day morning in America, and Harry Huntley ’20 is taking a few minutes from his busy schedule to reflect on his experiences as the Ward 1 Alderman of Annapolis. Despite an abundance of emails flowing through as we chat, a grant proposal deadline looming, and local campaigning still to be done, Huntley seems both at ease and excited. There’s a certain confidence and charisma he carries that showcases he is far from being a typical local politician.

This is immediately evident as Huntley shares his most recent social media post in which he highlights ideas that either newly elected President could adapt to policy by further investing in the United States Department of Agriculture to support our country’s farms.

It’s this same innovative thinking that the 26-year old Huntley applies to his role as alderman on the Annapolis City Council, a position he assumed after former alderwoman Eleanor Tierney, stepped down to relocate. Huntley will serve the remainder of Tierney’s term with municipal elections taking place in 2025.

“Being an alderman is like working three jobs in one,” Huntley said. “It can entail providing constituent services from simple matters like parking tickets, to revamping streets, to more complicated matters like construction projects and resolving conflicts, handling legislative issues to create short term solutions with long term impact, and developing and having oversight of the budget."

This is all in addition to his current day job working as an agricultural policy analyst for the Environmental Policy Innovation Center, helping governments across the country develop better ways to pay farmers to improve water quality. Huntley has been involved in many critical city issues during his time as alderman including working on amendments for outdoor dining downtown and the redevelopment of an abandoned property. His commitment to working on policy issues has aided his ability to push for progress in the city.

“If the city or state has allocated money to projects then why aren’t they getting done?” Huntley said. “Do we need a change in the budget? What can we do to make it easier to hire the right people to get the job done? We can’t just go through the motions when it comes to getting important issues resolved.”

Huntley points out that he also has to learn how to do the job while actively campaigning to land the position full term in the 2025 fall election.

If elected, a project he’ll need to focus on is the upcoming redevelopment and revitalization of the Annapolis City Dock, which has long needed attention following multiple storms that have flooded the area, affecting both residents and businesses. Huntley says it will be the largest capital improvement project in the city’s history and is set to begin next year.

“You want someone who wakes up every day thinking: how are we going to make environmentally positive projects happen faster and cheaper?” he said. “You want someone who has the expertise to dig into the details of what’s holding us up so that we are adapting, creating resilience, and reshaping our landscape into something that is going to be more useful.” Before we are done talking, Huntley specifically makes a point to mention the impact his time at UMD as an Agricultural Science & Technology and Economics double major had on his current role as alderman.

“The ability that University of Maryland provided to me to learn how to advocate, to stand up to power and provide a different perspective. Not to sound cliché, but it honestly made me fearless.” 

by Andrew Muir : Momentum Magazine Winter 2025