Two years ago, Kristina Karamo was not a name millions of Michiganders needed to know. But after being a Detroit poll challenger in 2020, she has turned false claims of widespread election fraud into statewide candidacy.
Karamo beat multiple local clerks and a state lawmaker at a Republican convention this spring, securing the party’s nomination for Michigan Secretary of State, the office that oversees elections. She will face Democrat incumbent Jocelyn Benson on Nov. 8.
MLive made multiple requests to Karamo’s campaign manager to interview her about her vision if elected on Nov. 8, but none were fulfilled. Karamo also did not participate in the Vote411 voter guide, an MLive and League of Women Voters initiative.
An idea of how she would govern, then, can be gleaned from her website, a small number of press conferences and various videos and speeches she has done.
On policy, she writes on her website of “securing chain of custody” throughout the voting system, from ballot printing to processing. Karamo also says “all reports” from citizens that allege election fraud “must be investigated in-depth.”
Karamo wants every voting software and hardware manufacturer operating in Michigan to “turn over all source and/or object codes” to her administration.
“The Secretary of State must have full access to every detail, of all election hardware and software, in order for any provider to be able to sell the state of Michigan software or hardware impacting voting results,” her website says.
Non-voting proposals she outlines include giving SOS branch office managers more say in what happens at their locations, plus reforming the SOS auto shop inspection process so to minimize the possibility that fines intimidate shops or generate income for the state.
Jobs she held before running for SOS, according to her LinkedIn profile, include teaching an orientation class at Wayne County Community College, being a “youth enrichment instructor,” hosting trivia events and working at an auto parts store.
She has a bachelor’s degree in communications from Oakland University and a master’s from Biola University in Christian apologetics, a branch of Christianity dedicated to defending the religion.
Karamo’s history and present of election criticism
The SOS’s top duty is overseeing elections and carrying out Michigan’s voting laws. That is where Karamo and Benson, who told MLive she has tried to “stand guard” over election denying, are deeply divided.
Karamo claimed to witness irregularities in absentee ballot processing at Detroit’s counting hub in 2020, and she made dozens of appearances in right-wing media as an election fraud “whistleblower.” In launching her campaign, Karamo said she wants to “remove corruption from our elections.”
“Donald Trump won Michigan,” she falsely claimed in a social media video in December 2020.
Michigan’s election results were legitimate. Trump’s loss by 154,000 votes was confirmed by more than 250 state and local audits, as well as a Republican-led state Senate report that “found no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud.”
Karamo has pushed the widespread fraud theory throughout her candidacy. Most recently, she claimed last month that surveillance videos prove “an illegal ballot mule operation” and did not respond to MLive’s request to elaborate. State guidance for clerks disproves her allegations.
Related: Videos claim illegal ballot dropping but Michigan election guidance explains practices
She has often called Benson an “authoritarian” and rejected being labeled as a “conspiracy theorist.” But Karamo also has more mainstream criticism of Michigan elections.
Before the August primary, she criticized guidelines from Benson’s office that say poll challengers can be removed for “repeated impermissible challengers.” Karamo argued that puts challengers in a “one-sided situation where the election inspector can just arbitrarily decide that that was an impermissible challenge.”
Karamo also complained that concerns about having too few Republican election workers in large Democratic areas like Detroit have not been properly heard or remedied.
She has been an outspoken opponent as well to Proposal 2, a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would ensure things like nine days of early in-person voting.
Karamo argues these changes will increase costs for municipalities, who will then raise property taxes to pay for it.
Related: The 3 proposals on your ballot, explained
Karamo said at Trump’s Michigan rally earlier this month she wants to clean up state voter rolls, which have thousands of dead people on them. She also framed what Benson calls “disinformation” as instead “people speaking truth about her corruption.”
“These people are not liberals, they’re authoritarians,” Karamo said. “… And the office of Secretary of State has never before in American history been so inextricably linked to our liberty.”
Karamo is endorsed by Trump and other prominent election deniers, including former state Sen. Patrick Colbeck and podcaster “Trucker” Randy Bishop. Trump’s endorsement noted she will be strong on the “massive” crime of election fraud.
“The vote counter in our country is, in my opinion, far more important than the candidate,” Trump said of Karamo’s candidacy at the Oct. 1 rally.
Karamo is also part of a coalition of election-hawking SOS candidates led by Nevada’s Jim Marchant.
“President Trump and I lost an election in 2020 because of a rigged election,” Marchant said at a Trump rally this past weekend. “… And when my coalition of secretary of state candidates around the country get elected, we’re going to fix the whole country, and President Trump is going to be president again in 2024.”
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