Christopher Ryan Clark (born September 14, 1983) is an American

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and former Mayor of

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...

. He was first elected to the Mountain View City Council in 2012 at age 29, making him the youngest and first openly LGBT elected official in the city’s history. Clark was subsequently elected mayor in January 2014 as one of the youngest mayors in the United States.

Biography

Clark grew up on a farm in Rozetta, Illinois and later served as a Page for the US House of Representatives. He attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and earned a B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Economics. While Vice Mayor, In 2013, Clark complete
Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government
program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government as
David BohnettLGBTQ Victory Institute
Leadership Fellow.

Career

Clark ran unsuccessfully for city council in 2008 and subsequently served on the Human Relations and

Environmental Planning Environmental planning is the process of facilitating decision making to carry out land development with the consideration given to the natural environment, social, political, economic and governance factors and provides a holistic framework to ...

Commissions before winning his 2012 election bid. He was the highest non-incumbent vote-getter and elected

vice mayor The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor, assistant mayor, or mayor ''pro tem'') is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many, but not all, local governments. Duties and functions Many elected dep ...

by the council soon after taking office in January 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Chris Mayors of places in California 1983 births California city council members Stanford University alumni Harvard Kennedy School alumni LGBT people from California American LGBT city council members Living people American gay politicians LGBT mayors of places in the United States 21st-century American LGBT people