Meet the Trump-backed podcaster and trivia jockey who hopes to oversee Michigan elections
Warren — Two ballots in Detroit, public speaking skills and an open embrace of conspiracy theories have helped power the rise of Republican Kristina Karamo, an educator and "trivia jockey" from Metro Detroit, who's asking voters this fall to allow her to supervise Michigan's future elections.
Opponents of the 37-year-old secretary of state candidate see her as a threat to democracy in a key battleground state who, they believe, is unqualified for the office she seeks. But Karamo's supporters view her as an inspirational figure who's won former President Donald Trump's endorsement and will take action on concerns about how elections are run.
Before Nov. 3, 2020 — the day of the last presidential election — Karamo of Oak Park was off the political radar. In recent years, records obtained by The Detroit News revealed, she's worked in an Amazon fulfillment center and as a "trivia jockey" for a business that hosts contests in bars and restaurants.
Since Nov. 3, 2020, Karamo has become one of the most outspoken critics of Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, gaining the spotlight of conservative media outlets.
Karamo, who says she worked for 37 hours as a poll challenger in Detroit for the presidential election, has repeatedly brought up two votes she says were given to Democrats that shouldn't have been. But Chris Thomas, Michigan's former longtime state elections director, disputes those allegations.
"It doesn't matter what your political affiliation is," Karamo said in a recent interview. "It doesn't matter what you believe or what you don't believe, or how pervasive the fraud is. Any amount of illegal activity is unacceptable."
"How pervasive fraud is (is) secondary," Karamo added. "Primary is that it shouldn't happen in the first place."
If elected, the Republican nominee said her priorities would be cleaning up Michigan voter rolls and ensuring that voting machines can't connect to the internet. In Michigan, there's an effort underway to cease using modems to transfer election results, and the state's tallies can be checked by examining paper ballots.
Karamo, who's challenging Benson in the Nov. 8 election to be Michigan's next secretary of state, didn't respond to multiple requests for extended interviews with The Detroit News. She gave a reporter an interview that lasted four minutes during a rally in Warren on Saturday.
The News examined Karamo's background and ideas by listening to more than six hours of her podcast, entitled "It's Solid Food," requesting her personnel file from Wayne County Community College, where she has worked as an instructor, and obtaining court documents covering her 2014 divorce.
The review found that Karamo has used her platform to vilify Democrats and frequently spread unproven and false claims about a variety of topics, including a conspiracy theory that Trump supporters didn't instigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"I believe these were Antifa types who dressed up in conservative garb and acted a fool to make us look bad," said Karamo during a Jan. 6, 2021, podcast. "That's what I think. Could I be wrong? Of course, I could be wrong."
During a Dec. 30, 2020, episode of her podcast, she defended conspiracies, saying people have been convinced not to put "puzzle pieces" together.
"If that makes me a conspiracy theorist, I wear my tinfoil hat with pride," Karamo said. "Well, not pride, because pride is a sin. I would wear it very happily. I will wear my tinfoil hat happily."
Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, a Democrat and local election official, predicted if Karamo becomes the secretary of state, Michigan would see "an immediate first wave of our Bureau of Elections staff leaving the office."
"Kristina Karamo being elected would be the single worst thing that could ever happen to the Secretary of State’s office," Byrum said. "In addition to the fact that she is utterly unqualified for the position, she would actively try to dismantle the systems that have allowed Michigan to hold the safest and most secure elections we have ever seen over the last several years."
What happened in Detroit
Karamo worked as a poll challenger at what was known as the TCF Center in Detroit for the 2020 presidential election. Now named Huntington Place, the riverfront convention center was where Detroit's absentee ballots were counted and became a focal point of Trump's criticisms of the election in Michigan, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden by 154,000 votes, or 3 percentage points.
Trump and his supporters, including Karamo, have made claims, which remain unproven, that fraud occurred in Detroit.
Karamo's public allegations have focused heavily on two ballots, which she claims were signs of a larger pattern.
On one, someone marked the straight ticket option for both Democrats and Republicans, and the vote was given to Democrats, Karamo claims. On another, someone voted for both Biden and Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, and the vote was given to Biden, she says.
During a Dec. 8, 2020, appearance on Fox Business, Karamo said she confronted a supervisor who told an election worker to "push it through," referring to one of the contested ballots.
Thomas, who was Michigan's election director for more than three decades, said it sounded likely the contested ballot wasn't actually counted as Karamo alleged and Karamo misunderstood what she saw. Thomas worked with the City of Detroit on administering the 2020 election.
“She never says they changed it. She never says I watched them change it," Thomas said, which would have been required to tally the vote in the situation Karamo described.
Language like "put it through" indicated to Thomas that nothing was changed and the ballot wasn't counted, Thomas said.
As Trump used his position as president to level false claims that the election had been "stolen," Karamo made a series of media appearances to discuss her account about Detroit. She spoke at the state Senate Oversight Committee hearing on the election on Dec. 1, 2020.
"We're appealing to you guys to do something about it," Karamo told state senators during the hearing.
On Dec. 10, 2020, Karamo's name appeared on a court filing in the U.S. Supreme Court that argued the GOP-controlled Legislature should have a vote on certifying Michigan's election, a claim that was repeatedly rejected by courts.
Four days later, on Dec. 14, 2020, as Michigan's presidential electors met inside the Capitol to officially cast the state's 16 electoral votes for Biden, Trump electors attempted to enter the building. They were denied access.
"This is not over," Karamo tweeted in response to a video of the Trump supporters trying to enter the Capitol.
A controversial figure
Nine months later, Trump endorsed Karamo to be Michigan's secretary of state, the top election official in the battleground state.
"Kristina will fight for you like no other, and of equal importance, she will fight for justice," Trump said in a statement at the time. "Good luck Kristina, and while you're at it, check out the fake election results that took place in the city of Detroit."
Trump and Karamo's claims came despite the fact that Trump did better in Detroit in 2020 than he did in 2016. Overall, Biden received 94% of the vote in Detroit, and Trump 5%. Four years earlier, Democrat Hillary Clinton got 95%, and Trump received just 3%.
Michigan Republican delegates endorsed Karamo for secretary of state at a convention in April, picking her over state Rep. Beau LaFave of Iron Mountain and Chesterfield Township Clerk Cindy Berry.
LaFave has previously argued that Karamo can't beat Benson because of her campaign strategy and past public statements. In a text message Tuesday, LaFave said he'll vote for Karamo.
"But I'll be congratulating Benson on her landslide victory the next day," LaFave said.
Jason Watts, an Allegan County Republican and former local election administrator, said he won't vote for Karamo because she doesn't understand how elections work. Watts said he wasn't sure who would get his vote in the secretary of state contest.
"Everything is tied into this conspiracy jam that everything is corrupt," Watts said of Karamo.
But Rocky Raczkowski, chairman of the Oakland County Republican Party, defended the GOP nominee. He said Democrats are trying to make her out to be a "far-right nut job," but that is not who she is.
"People need to stop dehumanizing her with these commercials," Raczkowski said, "and learn and hear directly from Kristina."
The chairman contended that Benson had used her office to help Democrats while Karamo would get to the facts of situations.
'That will never change'
Karamo last ran for public office in 2018, when she sought the 10th District seat on the Oakland County Commission in a heavily Democratic area.
Campaigning on education and changing the local economy Karamo lost the August 2018 Republican primary to David Foster, who got 60% of the vote. Foster went on to lose the general election to Democrat Angela Powell. He got 14% of the vote in that race.
During an interview with the Oakland County Times before the primary, Karamo said her previous political experience centered on serving with a congressional district Republican committee.
"I create video content to speak to the social issues that concern me," she also told the Oakland County Times. "If you want to learn about how I think, you can visit the website."
"It's really about your values and your character," added Karamo, defending her lack of experience. "That's what makes a good community leader."
Democrats and others have closely examined years of videos and podcasts Karamo created before launching her campaign for secretary of state in March 2021.
Karamo previously described abortion as "child sacrifice" and yoga as a "satanic ritual." During a 2020 podcast episode, she alleged that participants in the 2017 Women's March protests were "addicted to porn."
At a rally outside the Michigan Capitol on Sept. 13, Karamo said people were picking through "a Christian podcast that I ran two years ago." The remarks had nothing to do with running for secretary of state, she said.
"I am a Christian. I am a follower of Jesus Christ. That will never change," Karamo told the crowd. "I will never apologize for that. And I will also say this: These secularists are destroying our country."
Trivia jockey
Karamo studied communication at Oakland University before earning a master's degree in Christian apologetics from Biola University, a private evangelical school in suburban Los Angeles.
She launched her podcast in July 2020 to talk about culture, politics and Christian apologetics, which she described as defending the Christian faith against objections.
"It's an integral part of evangelism," Karamo said.
On the campaign trail, she's touted her work as an instructor at Wayne County Community College District. Her website describes herself as "an educator, mother of two and proud Christian patriot from Oak Park."
While she has taught classes through WCCCD since 2014, according to her personnel file, the documents also show she's worked in recent years to host trivia shows through a business called My Trivia Live. Karamo's position was "trivia jockey," a 2014 letter of recommendation from the company's owner, Cathryn Neracher, said.
"I am the owner of a company that does live, family-friendly trivia in restaurants and pubs across southeast Michigan," Neracher wrote of the business.
Karamo's LinkedIn page indicates her work for the trivia company continued for years. Neracher is now running for the state House as a Republican. She didn't respond to a request for comment.
Custody filings indicate Karamo also worked at an Amazon fulfillment center in Livonia as recently as February 2021.
Denies ex-husband's claims
Karamo’s personal life took center stage earlier this year after media outlet Jezebel reported that her ex-husband alleged in October 2021 custody papers that she tried to crash the car with her two children in the back seat when threatened with divorce.
Adom Karamo also appeared to make similar claims in a tweet in July 2021. Kristina Karamo has denied the claims publicly and in court documents, noting in custody filings last year that she was the one who filed the papers for divorce and that, despite his allegations in the 2021 custody papers, he had left the children in her custody for roughly several years.
In an October 2021 court filing responding to Adom Karamo's allegations, Kristina Karamo included screenshots from a July 2021 text message from her ex-husband referencing the tweet.
“Yo, I take it you saw, the tweet.. well I said I was close to snapping… judge and police can’t do anything against the truth,” wrote Adom Karamo, according to the screenshot. “Do you want to be amicable regarding the kids or do you still wanna do this? Before I go ahead with this interview, I’m gonna try and reason with you.. once it’s out there I can’t take it back.. call me.”
Kristina Karamo accused her ex-husband of slandering and harassing her but said she tried to remain amicable and arrange time for him to spend with their children.
“Your attempts to demonize, and publicly humiliate me in order to force me into subservience must stop so we can have a good relationship benefiting the children," Kristina Karamo wrote in a July 2021 text message to her ex-husband that was part of the October 2021 court filing.
The family court tussle ended with an Oakland County judge agreeing to allow the Karamo children to travel to Florida periodically to visit their father, court records show.
At the rally for Trump in Warren on Saturday, Karamo said the media had parroted the lies of her ex-husband.
"They like to personally ruin and destroy folks like me, not because they hate me so much," Karamo said. "It's because they want to strike fear in your heart and make you terribly afraid to speak up and fight back."
cmauger@detroitnews.com
eleblanc@detroitnews.com