Christoph Dundas

Christoph Dundas earned a high school diploma from United South Central High School. His career experience includes working as a music teacher.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Christoph Dundas is a lifelong resident of Southern Minnesota. He grew up in Wells in a single-income family with 5 younger siblings. He quickly learned the value of hard work in school and in part time jobs in foodservice, hog farms, and construction. Christoph attended St. Olaf College, working in construction jobs through summers while learning the challenges of the student loan system.

After college, Christoph started a career as a public school band teacher. He has taught in Austin since 2016, where he was named the 2025 Austin Teacher of the Year and a 2025 Minnesota Teacher of the Year Finalist. Outside of school, Christoph and his wife Kelsey have 4 children. While supporting a family on a teaching salary, Christoph learned the importance of the safety nets that exist in Minnesota. His family relied on state healthcare during his oldest daughter's premature birth and later cancer treatment. Despite a full-time job and several side gigs, he learned the challenges of affording housing, food, transportation, and medical expenses while raising a young family.

Christoph has lifelong experiences in rural Minnesota, including labor jobs and a teaching career, raising a family, and working toward home ownership. He understands the challenges that people face in Southern Minnesota. Christoph is a consensus-builder who is ready to expand his experience in public service to work for EVERYONE in District 23B.

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?

Rural Healthcare:

Rural Minnesotans have reached a tipping point in healthcare. Healthcare costs are rapidly rising, but rural clinics and hospitals are reducing services or closing completely. Every year, rural Minnesotans are asked to pay more for healthcare that we can no longer access.

There is no easy solution. However, as we saw in the 2026 legislature, Minnesota can do more to save hospitals. While the federal government passes bills to take away healthcare and cut payments to providers, Minnesota must act to protect and promote affordable healthcare for our rural residents.Education:

A quality education has long been a basic right in Minnesota. However, up-and-down state funding continues to contribute to unpredictability for public schools. Slim budget years shift more costs to local property owners, and small rural schools cannot operate when state funding is not enough to cover a teacher for every grade. We need to guarantee a minimum level of funding for our smallest schools, to ensure that every grade is funded even if one class is smaller. We need to immediately update our compensatory aid for low-income school districts to ensure that school funding does not rely solely on federal lunch forms. We need to treat educators as professionals with livable compensation to keep the best experts in classrooms.Housing and Cost of Living:

Rapid jumps in cost-of-living continue to hurt Minnesotans. Decisions by the federal government are affecting people right here in Southern Minnesota. Soaring fuel prices, unaffordable farming input costs, and economic instability create problems for everyone. Meanwhile, the cost of first homes has become unaffordable, and rent keeps climbing high enough that people can't save to buy a home.

Minnesota can make better investments in the future of housing in our state. We can increase availability of affordable rental property, and we can create better incentives for building entry-level houses. We can work with family farms to find new crop markets, and we can support farms that shift to profitable crops.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

As an educator, I am passionate about investing in public education. Student attention spans and reading levels have dipped since smartphones arrived in schools in 2013. Meanwhile, teachers earn 33% less than other college graduates in MN, and other school staff are not paid enough to stay at schools. We need to invest in keeping our best educators, and in innovation as we prepare students for a changing world. Education prepares students to be learners and critical thinkers with basic skills for any career or life path.

Healthcare is an area that will take a lot of work, but I believe there are solutions that balance community, patients, providers, and income. I'm willing to work on the tough issues and represent rural needs.