City of Sunnyvale City Council Councilmember Linda Sell

Though no other candidates qualified to run against her on Nov. 8, 2022, community activist Linda Sell was ready to compete. Her campaign website live well before the Sunnyvale City Council announced that she would be appointed to the District 1 council seat in lieu of election. Her lengthy list of endorsements included U.S. Rep Ro Khanna, state senators Dave Cortese and Josh Becker, Santa Clara County Supervisor Otto Lee and Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein. When it was announced that she would be appointed, Sell vowed to hold office hours (listed on her campaign site), attend community election forums and go door-to-door in the district.

Sell co-founded Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action, a youth-led nonprofit that helps high schoolers and young adults work to fight climate change. She was also involved in advocating for more coordinated public oversight of the Lehigh Cement Plant and was honored twice by the School District Teachers Association Annual Community Awards.

Day job: Engineer

Other positions held: Sunnyvale Housing and Human Service Commission, Cupertino Union School District Budget Advisory Committee

Notable quote: “I first got involved in community activism in Sunnyvale when my son, Harrison’s school district experienced deep cuts to their education funding—the proposed solution was to hand 107 teachers a pink slip. This sudden change could have increased class size and lost many highly qualified teachers. I worked 24/7 with other parents, the school district, foundations, community members, and local businesses to raise $2.5 million in 8 weeks to make sure our community would not suddenly need to deal with these drastic changes.” (Source: LindaSell.org campaign website)