In 2020, Runestad was one of 11 Republican state senators in Michigan who supported Donald Trump's effort to overturn the result of the presidential election and remain in power.
[2] Runestad was an Oakland County Commissioner for three terms, as well as chairman of the Public Services Committee and Planning and Building Committee, before being elected in 2014 to the Michigan House of Representatives from 44th District, covering Highland, Milford, and Springfield, White Lake townships, and part of Waterford Township.
In January 2021, Runestad was one of 11 Republican Michigan state senators who promoted Trump's false claims of fraud in the 2020 election; in a letter sent to Congress on January 6, 2021, ahead of the formal counting of the electoral votes, Runestad and the other members of the group baselessly suggested that there were "credible allegations of election-related concerns surrounding fraud and irregularities.
"[7][8] Although being one of the most conservative state senators, Runestad has shown libertarian views, In 2021 and 2022, in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and killing of Patrick Lyoya, Runestad sponsored a bill (SB 478) to ban the police use of chokeholds unless the person subdued "posed an immediate threat to the life of the law enforcement officer or another individual.
[11] In March 2022, Runestad supported a Republican-sponsored non-binding resolution that symbolically called for increasing fossil fuel (oil and gas) extraction and the continuing operations of Enbridge Line 5 under Michigan's Straits of Mackinac.