Sammamish Native and Community Leader Lin Yang Announces Run for City Council

Lin Yang, a long-time community leader and youth advocate in Sammamish, announced on March 26, 2025, that he is running for Sammamish City Council. 

Yang is the first city council candidate in Sammamish’s history to have grown up in the city. He graduated from Eastlake High School in 2001, two years after Sammamish was incorporated. 

His passion for public service began at a young age when he founded the City of Sammamish’s first public commission, the Sammamish Youth Board, in 2001 to ensure that young people had a voice in advocating for their needs and priorities at City Hall. He also served as the youth representative to Sammamish City Council from 2000 to 2001. 

He later returned to Sammamish to raise his family in the same house he grew up in. 

As a former journalist, he was saddened to see that Sammamish lost its only newspaper in 2017. Three years later, he led a community-wide effort to establish the Sammamish Independent to bring fact-based news coverage to his hometown, and recruited high school students to be its reporters. Currently, the Sammamish Independent is one of only a handful of local newspapers in the United States that is run predominantly by youth.

Through his work at the Sammamish Independent, as well as his experience as a parent, Yang observed that Sammamish residents have many needs and desires that City Hall is not adequately addressing.

“There is so much more that our city government can do to support families, youth, seniors, and those who work hard every day to make a living,” Yang said.

If elected, Yang pledges to bring greater transparency, thoughtful planning, and a proactive “can-do” approach to city government. He believes we need a City Hall that “doesn’t just cover the basics. We need a City Hall that helps everyone thrive.”

Yang has nearly two decades of professional experience in multiple fields. He has served as a public school teacher, a school district budget analyst, and an international journalist. He joined the technology sector a decade ago, and is now a communications director at Microsoft.

Throughout his career, Yang has recognized the value of bringing people together, building diverse teams, and fostering partnerships to get things done. He believes collaboration is essential and plans to bring this approach to City Council to help make local government more responsive to the needs of those who live and work in Sammamish. 

Yang earned his Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Cornell University, and has a Master's in Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard University and a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) from UCLA. 

He is married and has two daughters, and hopes to build a community that they can be proud to call home.

Visit LinforSammamish.com to learn more.