Christopher Runberg

I’m a 7th generation Bay City resident, husband and father of three, and combat veteran. Following my deployment to Iraq and Honorable Discharge from the Army, I struggled with a crippling addiction and housing insecurity. Now more than six years clean, I owe it to not only myself and my family and friends who saw me through those dark days, but to the community I love for providing me my second chance I’m living today.

On October 7, 2024 I was appointed the 7th Ward City Commissioner after the seat sat vacant for more than seven months. Since then, I’ve passed resolutions ensuring due process for ALL residents and visitors to our city, protected the most vulnerable among us from religious discrimination in the shelter’s overnight drop-in center, argued and voted to keep mass-surveillance technology out of Bay City, and voted to allocate $5m to streets to help address our crumbling infrastructure.

This journey through a crucible of hardship, though not unique to me, has been the motivating force behind my service to Bay City. With so many struggling to make ends meet; with so many suffering addiction and food and housing insecurity; with working-class families getting squeezed into the margins by national and state-level politics and an economy that is more and more for “them,” and not us, it’s our civic duty to stand up and push back.

Won’t you join me as we protect and empower our neighbors with policies that benefit community wellbeing and economic opportunity?