Don’t tell this to Cutter Copeland, because it just might add a teensy bit of pressure to the 21-year-old college student’s life.
But Copeland’s former Tenino High School wrestling coach plans to vote for him when Copeland’s eligible to run for United States president — in a mere 14 years.
“Cutter’s a very, very awesome young man … and I’m so happy he’s gotten the opportunity to be on the council, because he’ll be running and gunning,” coach Mike Morales said by phone on Thursday, Dec. 17. “I’ll probably be voting for him for president when he turns 35.”
Copeland’s reaction?
Laughter.
“The idea of becoming president has never seriously broached my thoughts, but who knows,” Copeland said last week, still trying to hold back a chuckle. “But I don’t have any major reasons to not consider politics as a career. The possibilities are endless.”
Copeland — perhaps through a logical progression in which fate has played a part — will begin his potential ascent to the White House in Tenino, the town in which he’s spent his entire life.
On Dec. 8 via the Tenino City Council’s virtual meeting, council members passed a resolution designating Copeland to fill position No. 2, vacated about a month earlier by Dave Watterson, who had been on the council for about seven years.
Copeland, a 2018 Tenino High School graduate who formally applied for the council position via the town’s online portal, watched the virtual Dec. 8 council meeting from the comfort of his bedroom in the house he shares with his mom, Susan, and dad, Jeff.
When the resolution passed, Copeland experienced a moment of pure elation.
“I was incredibly excited and thankful when I was chosen,” he said. “I was smiling ear to ear, and my face was redder than the sun.”
Copeland will get his first chance to run and gun during the city council’s first 2021 meeting on Jan. 12. Tenino Mayor Wayne Fournier administered the oath of office to Copeland last week and expects great things from the local lad.
“I think Cutter is a remarkable person regardless of his unique age for the role he’s now playing,” Fournier wrote in an email last week. “He is intellectual, thoughtful and a very caring person who I know will take the role seriously.
“I think that I and the community are excited to see what he will bring to the council and appreciate seeing someone his age taking this opportunity to serve.”
Copeland, who is following in the footsteps of his mom who was on the city council from 2015 to 2019 and resigned to pursue a career opportunity, just completed his fall junior semester at Humboldt State University in Northern California. He has been taking classes online in Tenino since March when the school suspended in-person teaching.
The school hopes to reopen in fall 2021 when Copeland would return to Humboldt and effectively end his current city council career. Otherwise, he would presumably fulfill Watterson’s remaining term through Dec. 31, 2023.
Copeland’s university experience follows a remarkable career at Tenino High School.
The active achiever was the 2017-18 Associated Student Body president his senior year at the same time he captained the school’s wrestling team. He also managed to edit the school’s yearbook and was honored as the state’s wrestling academic state champion for the 113-pound weight class. And he spent whatever spare time he could muster serving food at Don Juan’s Mexican Kitchen.
Copeland recalls his high school days with great fondness.
“It wasn’t just the students I enjoyed, but also the teachers and coaches,” he said. “I built this community that poured out love to me. They are a big part of my support system, and if I need anything they will be there for me.”
Copeland, who is majoring in business administration with a marketing concentration at Humboldt State, hopes to apply what he learns in the world of film, which has intrigued him all along. He’s particularly interested in running his own business making and producing films and commercials.
“The degree allows me to move through multiple lanes, have a linear path and more available options,” he said. “The most satisfying aspect of the study is learning how much marketing and leadership matters and how that translates into clear, concise communication.”
But despite enthusiasm for his college studies and the Redwood-forest beauty surrounding Humboldt’s campus in Arcata, California, Copeland admitted suffering some homesickness when he first moved away.
“Moving made me kind of nostalgic for Tenino,” he said. “It’s the small-town atmosphere. You never meet a stranger here — you know everyone. That’s the big thing.”
For now, though, he’s back home and already laying the groundwork for his council aspirations. He said a little about it to the other council members the night he was appointed to the open position.
“I expressed how grateful I was to serve on the council and how excited I was for the opportunity to push for youth involvement in the community,” he said.
Clear, concise, communication — that’s the key — and much of it revolves around the city’s younger population.
“I want to get younger people involved in the city in which they live and for them to better understand how local government works and that they have a voice in it to be effective,” Copeland explained. “My overall goal is to get people to express their opinions about changes in the city, what they feel is going great, and what they feel we should be doing.”
And though he’ll be the council’s youngest member and perhaps the most ambitious, Copeland’s not worried that generational differences will adversely affect the council’s deliberations.
“I expect to work wonderfully with the other council members,” he said. “Conflicts are bound to come up, but I feel that we’re all reasonable people, and it will just be water off a duck’s back.”
Besides, Copeland has always gotten along well with people of all ages — but mostly adults, his mom said.
“Cutter’s a natural leader, and he’s also been referred to as an ‘old soul,’” Susan Copeland said. “Even as a child he has always gotten along with adults better than he did with kids his own age. He is very compassionate, and when he’s motivated to change something he will do anything he can to change it.”
Susan expects her son to speak his mind and offer unique perspectives during council meetings.
“I think he will bring fresh ideas to the council and help the older generation see how the new way will help benefit the town and that small changes can be good,” she said. “And he is also very persuasive.”
According to Cutter, however, mom and son haven’t discussed council goals or agendas, despite Susan’s political experience.
“My mom was super happy I had the opportunity to be on the council, and she wanted me to make it my own,” Cutter said.
One way or the other, his council experience will be unique: COVID-19 has ensured that. Copeland’s especially sensitive to the tragedy as it punishes his hometown.
“The most challenging part of it for me has been to see local businesses struggle,” he said. “These are all the places I’ve known since I was a kid that are having a tough time making it. For me, personally, it’s also been tough not being able to see friends and family, though I’ve tried to adapt online.”
In the meantime, as he weathers the storm along with the rest of us, Copeland’s survived Humboldt’s online finals week by doing some recreational running, gardening and turning to one of his favorite pastimes.
Music, that is — old-school style.
For the past six years, Copeland has been collecting vinyl record albums and now has a collection of about 500 of them he plays on one of two turntables.
“It’s just about time to get a new shelf for them,” he said, referring to his burgeoning album collection.
Copeland — a political independent who values freedom of speech above all other political tools — especially likes California 1980s punk rock and the blues, but his tastes traverse a wide musical map.
“I love everything from Madonna to Sir Mix-a-Lot, Iron Maiden, Black Flag,” he said. “It pretty much runs the gamut. And some of the music coming out right now is shaping my political views.”
Copeland points specifically to the musical groups the Idles — a British rock band — and Run the Jewels — an American hip-hop duo — that express what he calls politically charged anger and a desire for people to come together in unity.
“It’s expressing the anger about the divide in the country, and that no one can see the other’s side,” Copeland explained.
That desire to consider others’ opinions ought to suit Copeland well as he takes the presidential oath of office in 2035, and it might even help him coalesce around his new Tenino City Council colleagues to boot.
