Christian Thomas Shaughnessy
Christian Thomas Shaughnessy is running for election to the San Bernardino City Council to represent Ward 2 in California. Shaughnessy is on the ballot in the primary on June 2, 2026.[source]
Biography
Christian Thomas Shaughnessy earned a high school diploma from Pacific High School, an associate degree from San Bernardino Valley College in 2016, and a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2018.[1] His career experience includes working as a community organizer. Shaughnessy has been been the San Bernardino County Youth Coordinated Entry System chair, San Bernardino County Youth Advisory Board staff liaison, and an English teacher's assistant.[2]
Elections
2026
See also: City elections in San Bernardino, California (2026)
General election
The primary will occur on June 2, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
Nonpartisan primary
Nonpartisan primary election for San Bernardino City Council Ward 2
Incumbent Sandra Ibarra (Nonpartisan), Benito Barrios (Nonpartisan), and Christian Thomas Shaughnessy (Nonpartisan) are running in the primary for San Bernardino City Council Ward 2 on June 2, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Sandra Ibarra (Nonpartisan) | |
 | Benito Barrios (Nonpartisan) | |
 | Christian Thomas Shaughnessy (Nonpartisan) | |
| ||||
 = 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
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2024
See also: City elections in San Bernardino, California (2024)
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for San Bernardino City Council Ward 3
Incumbent Juan Figueroa won election outright against Christian Thomas Shaughnessy in the primary for San Bernardino City Council Ward 3 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Juan Figueroa (Nonpartisan) | 53.2 | 1,028 |
| Christian Thomas Shaughnessy (Nonpartisan) | 46.8 | 903 | |
| Total votes: 1,931 | |||
| = 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 Shaughnessy's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Shaughnessy in this election.
2022
See also: Municipal elections in San Bernardino County, California (2022)
General election
General election for San Bernardino Community College District Area 4
Incumbent Nathan D. Gonzales defeated Christian Thomas Shaughnessy in the general election for San Bernardino Community College District Area 4 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Nathan D. Gonzales (Nonpartisan) | 54.6 | 12,947 |
| Christian Thomas Shaughnessy (Nonpartisan) | 45.4 | 10,784 | |
| Total votes: 23,731 | |||
| = 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 Shaughnessy's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
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You can ask Christian Thomas Shaughnessy to fill out this survey by using the button below or emailing christianforsbward2@gmail.com.
Campaign website
Shaughnessy's campaign website stated the following:
Issues
Homelessness:
Too many lives have been lost in our city’s growing homelessness crisis—from dog attacks in unsafe encampments to drug overdoses that claim both the young and the old. Homeowners, renters, and business owners alike no longer feel safe in their own neighborhoods.
We must tackle the root causes of chronic homelessness—not just apply band-aid solutions when election time comes. That means investing in mental health care, expanding affordable housing, creating better jobs, and holding negligent slumlords accountable so that every resident has a safe place to live and thrive.
Public Safety:
Like too many families in San Bernardino, I know firsthand the pain caused by crime and gang violence. We must strengthen and expand innovative efforts like the Violence Intervention Program, while hiring more detectives to solve crimes quickly and bring justice to victims. We must also support and grow Victim Services and Domestic Violence Programs—and take decisive action to stop the human trafficking crisis in our city once and for all. The safety of our animals and their guardians is also important to me, and we must save abandoned animals and reduce the kill rate at our animal shelter instead of overloading our staff and volunteers.
Blight:
Rundown and neglected buildings drag down property values for hardworking families and honest small businesses. Too many tenants living paycheck to paycheck are being exploited by slumlords who ignore safety and decency. We must hire more code enforcement officers and strengthen enforcement of our housing laws to protect our neighborhoods, support responsible landlords, and make San Bernardino a safe and livable place to raise a family.
Fixing Our Streets:
Like you, I know the frustration and cost of our city’s potholes. I once hit a San Bernardino pothole that caused more than $3,000 in damage to my only car. No one working hard to support their family should have to pay that price for simply driving to work or school. We need an ambitious, accountable program to repair our streets, improve traffic intersections, and make driving in San Bernardino safe for our working families—and for our wallets.
Smart Economic Development and Good Paying Jobs:
San Bernardino’s Ward 2 deserves leadership that knows how to create good jobs, support fair wages, and grow local businesses. Our city must work hand-in-hand with local entrepreneurs, organized labor, school districts, and regional partners to attract new investment, strengthen small businesses, and expand opportunities for every working family. We need to see change that isn't just slogans, but that we can see in our pockets.
We can revitalize our economy through apprenticeship and training programs, smart and transparent zoning, improved storefronts, and clean, walkable commercial corridors that bring customers and tourists back to a San Bernardino that delivers real community benefits. Together, we can build a city where workers earn a living—and thriving—wage and businesses prosper, ensuring a strong middle class with reliable transit, vibrant green spaces, and safe, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods.
Our warehouse workers and logistics employees at large employers deserve the dignity of historic, first in the nation wage protections that allow them to live in the cities they work in, raise families, and support the small businesses around their workplaces.
— Christian Thomas Shaughnessy's campaign website (March 28, 2026)
2024
Christian Thomas Shaughnessy completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Shaughnessy's responses.
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He is backed by 25 organizations and unions, 14 elected officials and many other community leaders including Majority Leader Emeritus Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes, Retired Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown, our local National Organization of Women, the Inland Empire Labor Council AFL-CIO, IE United Steelworkers, and Ward 3 Valley College’s School Employees Association because he is the pro working families, anti-corruption and anti pay to play candidate in Ward 3.
He is proud to run a campaign that is Corporate PAC and developer money free. He fundraises on small donors, small businesses, and working families like you to win so we can defeat corruption in San Bernardino.
- We must stop the corruption and bribery that hurt San Bernardino working families and small businesses. When we save taxpayer funds that are being wasted on politician's corrupt friends, we can then spend them on our city's needs, like our roads, our youth, our elders, and our environment.
I support:
Not using tax payer’s dollars to pay for politician’s legal fees, especially ongoing sexual harassment cases.
Rejecting Corporate PAC and developer donations to prioritize working families and give all businesses a fair playing field.
Cracking down on cash bribery of our city elected officials.
Enforcing anti pay to play and conflict of interest laws.
Stopping Big Business and developers from owning our politicians. - Create good, local jobs and build huge amounts of affordable housing so our young people can enter the middle class and our elders can stay living in the neighborhoods they grew up in. I support: Development of affordable housing Inclusionary housing Rent Stabilization and a Housing Board Shelters for unhoused people A rental assistance program Cracking down on slum lords Community benefit agreements and local hiring Promoting building and trades apprenticeships in the housing renaissance San Bernardino needs Seed money for small business startups Revitalizing our Downtown and National Orange Show. Mentoring for historically underrepresented entrepreneurs Protecting the legal right to unionize for warehouse workers
- Promote accountable public safety and cracking down on violent crime and slum lords. As someone who lost a friend to gun violence and who has seen too many other friends victimized by corrupt slum lords, that is personal to me. Defend and expand Violence Prevention and Intervention Programs to stop gangs. Taking on slum lords and defending tenants and working families by hiring more code enforcement officers Self defense courses for residents Young child care support for parents Youth programming and senior programming to promote civic engagement Community Control of the Police
Cheryl Brown, Retired Assemblymember District 47 and co-founder of Black Voice News
Corey Jackson, Assembly District 60 Assemblymember
Kimberly Calvin, San Bernardino City Councilwoman
Ben Reynoso, San Bernardino City Councilman
Abigail Medina, San Bernardino City Unified School Board Member
Susan Longville, Elected San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District Member
Dr. Treasure Ortiz, San Bernardino City Council Ward 7 Candidate, Former Ward 3 City Council Candidate
Dr. Gwen Dowdy Rodgers, San Bernardino County Board of Education Member
Mary Ellen Abilez Grande, San Bernardino City Unified School Board Member
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.
2022
Christian Thomas Shaughnessy completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Shaughnessy's responses.
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After I grew up in poverty and had one of my friends shot and killed just 3 blocks from my childhood home, I knew we had to do whatever it took to improve the lives of people in our region and ensure that poverty and violence like that would never happen again. I am the only district graduate, youth community organizer and mentor stopping violence on the streets, who was also an international educator, student government leader, and co-chair of Mecha (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan) in this race.
I am the only candidate in this race who has pledged never to take corporate PAC money and support term limits. I will be a proud voice for working families and have been endorsed by the IE Labor Council, Teachers Association, School Employees Association, Teamsters, Steelworkers, United Food and Commercial Workers 1167, and Chicano Latino Caucus.
I am someone who knows the struggle and I have the roots and experience to put our precious students and beloved working families first. I would also be humbled to be the first Asian and youngest trustee ever elected on the Board. We need change in this board and together we will make it happen!- I will promote official mentoring programs to keep our youth permanently away from the path to violence and on the path of graduation and employment.
- I will help create vocational centers on every campus that will provide paid apprenticeships to students who want to enter the trades, avoid student debt, and get inflation resistant jobs.
- As a trustee I will look forward to ensuring that our wonderful support staff and faculty get the thriving wages and benefits they deserve to live happy and fulfilling lives with their families in the region while having the remote work flexibility to watch their children grow up and attend to their elders in their old age.
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
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
