Richard Carlbom

Richard Carlbom

Richard Carlbom was Freedom to Marry's State Director. He is a seasoned marriage campaign veteran who in the course of two short years achieved a double win when as campaign manager of Minnesotans United for All Families, he first led the campaign to defeat a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would ban same-sex marriage and then 6 months later led the campaign in the Minnesota legislature to pass the bill bringing the freedom to marry to Minnesota.

Before joining the campaign, Richard was the communications director for Chris Coleman, the mayor of St. Paul. He also managed the successful 2010 reelection campaign of Rep. Tim Walz (DFL-Minn.). A 2004 graduate of Saint John’s, Carlbom served as the mayor of St. Joseph, Minn., from 2005 to 2007. He married his husband in December 2013. Following the victory in 2015, Richard continued work in the equality movement based out of his home state of Minnesota.