Thea Selby

This page was current at the end of the official's last term in office covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Thea Selby

Nonpartisan

Prior offices

San Francisco Community College Board

---

Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2022

Education

Bachelor's

University of California, Berkeley, 1981

Personal

Birthplace

Palo Alto, Calif.

Profession

Small business owner, marketing

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Instagram

Personal Facebook

Personal X

Personal YouTube

Personal LinkedIn

Thea Selby was a member of the San Francisco Community College Board in California. She assumed office in 2015. She left office on December 9, 2022.

Selby (Democratic Party) ran in a special election to the California State Assembly to represent District 17. She lost in the special primary on February 15, 2022.

Selby also ran for re-election to the San Francisco Community College Board in California. She lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Selby completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Thea Selby was born in Palo Alto, California. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981. Selby's career experience includes owning a small marketing business.

Elections

2022

San Francisco Community College Board

See also: City elections in San Francisco, California (2022)

General election

General election for San Francisco Community College Board (3 seats)

The following candidates ran in the general election for San Francisco Community College Board on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Anita Martinez (Nonpartisan)	14.8	90,612
✔	Submit photo	Vick Chung (Nonpartisan)	13.8	84,646
✔		Susan Solomon (Nonpartisan)	13.8	84,266
	Submit photo	John Rizzo (Nonpartisan)	11.2	68,444
	Submit photo	Brigitte Davila (Nonpartisan)	10.6	64,652
		Thea Selby (Nonpartisan)	10.1	62,010
		Jill Yee (Nonpartisan)	9.1	55,437
		Marie Hurabiell (Nonpartisan)	6.6	40,225
		William Walker (Nonpartisan)	5.8	35,604
		Jason Zeng (Nonpartisan)	4.3	26,103

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 611,999
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

California State Assembly District 17

See also: California state legislative special elections, 2022

General election

Special general election for California State Assembly District 17

Matt Haney defeated David Campos in the special general election for California State Assembly District 17 on April 19, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Matt Haney (D)	62.4	48,762
		David Campos (D)	37.6	29,422

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 78,184
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Nonpartisan primary election

Special nonpartisan primary for California State Assembly District 17

Matt Haney and David Campos defeated Bilal Mahmood and Thea Selby in the special primary for California State Assembly District 17 on February 15, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Matt Haney (D)	36.4	34,174
✔		David Campos (D)	35.7	33,448
		Bilal Mahmood (D)	22.3	20,895
		Thea Selby (D)	5.6	5,261

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 93,778
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

To view Selby's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.

2018

See also: Municipal elections in San Francisco, California (2018)

General election

General election for San Francisco Community College Board (3 seats)

Incumbent Brigitte Davila, incumbent Thea Selby, and incumbent John Rizzo defeated Victor Olivieri in the general election for San Francisco Community College Board on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Brigitte Davila (Nonpartisan)	29.9	187,792
✔		Thea Selby (Nonpartisan)	29.5	184,956
✔	Submit photo	John Rizzo (Nonpartisan)	24.1	151,356
		Victor Olivieri (Nonpartisan)	16.1	101,368
		Other/Write-in votes	0.4	2,373

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 627,845
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Thea Selby did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Thea Selby completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Selby's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a mom who has raised her two kids in this district of San Francisco and walked them to public school, so I will fight for keeping working families in this city. I'm a small business owner for 20+ years in the district who knows that small businesses are the backbone of our economy and are what make our neighborhoods unique--they deserve a voice in the Assembly as we recover from COVID. I am a citywide elected community college trustee, elected in 2014 to City College of San Francisco. I was the President when we implemented FREE CITY, allowing any resident (including undocumented students) to attend the community college for free. And I got involved in my neighborhood and cok-founded the Lower Haight Merchnat + Neighbor Assn because of a double murder across from my street--we should all feel safe in San Francisco,. I am running for Assembly to fight for working families through more affordable housing, to fight for education as the ladder of opportunity for all, to work every day to meet or exceed our climate goals for our children and theirs, and to make every neighborhood in San Francisco safe for everyone.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Education as the ladder of opportunity for all.
• Housing and safe neighborhoods to keep working families in San Francisco
• Meeting or exceeding climate goals for our children and theirs.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I care deeply about public education. I am a product of public education, with an undergrad from UC Berkeley in Soviet Studies and an MBA from the Univ of Oregon. My children went to Balboa High and UC Berkeley and Lowell and UC San Diego. Education is a ladder of opportunity, often the only one, for everyone. Community Colleges play a significant role in educating the most disadvantaged among us and are sorely underfunded and under-recognized. I will be a champion for community colleges

I also care deeply about keeping our working families in San Francisco. That means we have to build more affordable housing and provide access to day care for the young families and homecare for the seniors. We have a mandate to provide 82,000 additional housing units for our city--we have to get to "yes" to make that happen. I'd follow in Asm Chiu's steps to work with everyone in the Assembly to help get our housing built.

That will also help with something my children worry about everyday--moving the needle on our climate goals. This crisis we find ourselves in must be addressed with housing changes (if you don't have to live 2 hours away, you reduce carbon emissions greatly), with better cleaner transportation options (I'm a co-founder of 95,000-member coalition Voices for Public Transportation, made up of labor and advocates across the Bay Area) that are funded with progressive revenue sources. We will have that on the ballot in 2024.

What qualities does this office possess that makes it a unique and important part of the state government and legal system?

The Assembly and Senate create legislation to help the people of California navigate through their lives. They also appropriate the dollars from the budget as it is set out by the Governor and negotiated by the legislature.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I'm a hardworker. I like to listen to others opinions, and I actually understand numbers and budgets. I like to laugh, and eat good food, and I like heat (Sacramento is hot, San Francisco is cold). I also like the Capital Corridor Amtrak train, which is probably how I will commute back and forth.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

To represent the people of the district over monied interests. To try to make the best decisions even when they are not popular (if you are pissing off everyone you are probably doing something right). To have the hard conversations with people when they don't want to hear them and you don't want to say them.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first paid job was at Wendy's on MLK Jr Way in Austin, Texas. I held it for less than a year, and "graduated" (it was more pay) to Jack in the Box on the Drag. Jack in the Box was near a mental institution, and patients could be found there most days, drinking coffee and sitting at the small laminated tables.

Working for fast food taught me that bad pay for bad work was a bad deal. It taught me to fight back when customers (frat boys mostly) were jerks. It taught me to play. How many times have you thought you heard, "Welcome to Jack in the Box. May I f@#ck your mother?" Well, you heard it.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Dorian Gray, of course! :)

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Que Sera, Sera as done by Sly and the Family Stone. "will I be handsome, will I be rich..."

Do you believe that it's beneficial for holders of this office to have previous experience in government or politics?

Yes, as I believe it's very difficult to govern well. I believe I've been tempered by my seven years at City College. We were under attack when I was elected (the accreditation agency wanted us put out of business) and suffered debilitating loss of students since I got there, compounded by COVID, which hit disadvantaged students hardest.

What kind of skills or expertise do you believe would be the most helpful for the holders of this office to possess?

The ability to listen to others and come to compromise. The ability to work well with staff to craft legislation. The ability to create communities of advisors for different subjects so that you are not just listening to lobbyists on any given subject. The ability to hold your opinion if you believe it to be right under pressure to cave.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2022 Elections

What's on the ballot? U.S. Congress U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

Who represents me? U.S. Congress State executives State legislators State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards

Newsletters

The Heart of the Primaries The Daily Brew The Weekly Brew The Ballot Bulletin Checks and Balances Economy and Society Hall Pass Number of the Day Robe & Gavel Union Station

External links

Search Google News for this topic

Candidate

San Francisco Community College Board

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Personal

Facebook

X

YouTube

LinkedIn