Tara Campbell is a lifelong resident of Yorba Linda and has served on the City Council since 2016 and was first appointed mayor by the council in 2018 when she was just 25 years old. This made her the youngest woman mayor in the history of California, and the youngest female mayor in U.S. history for a city of 30,000 people or more — facts that drew a lot of media attention.
But that attention was not important to Campbell.
“What was big for me was the fact that it was my hometown,” Campbell said. “To be able to be mayor of your hometown, there’s something really special about that. Everybody’s pretty much family and friends to me. And to be able to help people in my community and be mayor of my hometown was the greatest honor.”
Campbell’s family has strong roots in North Orange County, having lived here for more than 35 years. She attended St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School in Yorba Linda and then Rosary Academy in Fullerton.
She applied to colleges in the spring of 2011 and was accepted at University of Southern California for spring 2012 admission. Taking advantage of the extra time during the summer and fall after high school, Campbell took general education classes at Santiago Canyon College, credits which transferred over to USC.
“I really loved my experience at SCC, and it really set me on a great course for my college career,” she said. “I saved a ton of money and got to stay close to home, too.”
As a sports fan and an athlete, Campbell’s goal was to become a sports journalist. “I got to do that for a little bit, reporting from the sidelines for the football team and the basketball team,” she said. “I really loved that, but I thought I better broaden my journalism experience to something other than sports.”
A summer internship for C-SPAN in Washington, DC, fell through at the last minute, so Campbell scrambled and got another at a bipartisan nonprofit that was trying to get members of Congress to work together.
“We were working on some common sense legislation and thought we were doing all this great work, but then the government shut down. That was in 2013,” she said.
Returning to her hometown she discovered the same gridlock she’d seen in Washington was happening on the local level, too.
“In my hometown of Yorba Linda, our city council was in the midst of a recall. I was like, ‘What is happening in my local hometown? We are a great community.’ I found out that that wasn’t too uncommon for Yorba Linda. We had a number of potential recalls. I realized, ‘OK, if you want to see a change, be part of that change.’”
She decided to get involved and started serving on the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission while still in college. She added political science as a major and then went on to get a master’s degree in public administration at USC.
“By going to SCC and getting my GEs done, I was able to start my master’s courses while I was a senior at USC,” she said. “I got my undergrad and master’s at USC in five years.”
She credits Santiago Canyon College for giving her the early boost she needed.
“SCC really set me up for success down the line. It was a huge benefit for me. We have this great institution so close by where you can set your career — not just your education, but your career — in a great trajectory.”
Yorba Linda’s City Council members elect their mayor every year, and Campbell is starting on her eighth year on the council. The job has its challenges and conflicts, she said.
“I’ve tried to lead by example of being a problem solver and being able to engage and talk to everybody and hear all sides so that I can make the best decision for my community,” she explained.
Campbell’s style of leadership has earned the respect of her constituents, even those who don’t agree with her views. And her dedication to Yorba Linda is obvious.
“Yorba Linda is an amazing community because you still have that small-town feel, but you also have all the great amenities. We just built a beautiful, state-of-the-art new public library and cultural art center. We just built a town center. We just built Adventure Playground, which is now year-round.”
Campbell notes with pride that Yorba Linda has a balanced budget and a crime rate far below the average for a U.S. city.
“I might be biased because I’m the mayor, but I think Yorba Linda is a great place to call home, a great place to raise family, and one ranked in the top of the safest cities in California,” Campbell said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that I wanted to come home to this great community and help set it on a great course for generations to come.”
