My-Linh Thai was born in Vietnam, but immigrated to the United States in 1983 as a war refugee. She arrived in the Seattle area at the age of 15 and enrolled at Federal Way High School despite not knowing the English language. Thai graduated from the University of Washington School of Pharmacy and worked as a practicing pharmacist in Billings, Montana, before moving with her family to Bellevue, Washington, in 2008. She has also worked as a medical interpreter for Vietnamese immigrants and returned to the country to teach one of the first graduate nursing programs in Vietnam. She became involved in the Somerset parent-teacher association shortly after moving to the city, during a sabbatical from her work as a pharmacist. Thai was appointed PTA president, earning an advocacy award from the state PTA, and was elected to the Bellevue School Districtschool board in 2013. During her first term as a school board member, Thai advocated against racial inequality and campaigned to hire a racially-diverse set of teachers to reflect the demographics of the Bellevue school body. She was re-elected to a second term in 2017 and was appointed as the board president. Thai also served as the vice president of the Washington State School Directors' Association.
Political career
Election
Thai filed her candidacy for the 41st district seat in early April 2018, shortly after incumbent Judy Clibborn announced her retirement. Running on a platform centered around education and healthcare reform, she received the endorsement of the 41st District Democrats, the Washington Education Association, the Washington State Labor Council, and The Seattle Times, and The Stranger. Thai took 43 percent of the vote in the primary election, advancing to the general election alongside Republican Michael Appleby. Thai was elected in the general election on November 6, 2018, winning 65 percent of the vote over Appleby's 35 percent. She became one of the first two Vietnamese American legislators to be elected to the Washington State Legislature, alongside Joe Nguyen from the 34th district. Thai announced her resignation from the school board the following day. She was sworn-in on January 14, 2019, wearing a traditional Vietnamese dress.
