FALSE PROPHET

Kristina Karamo

Secretary of State Candidate, Michigan

Kristina Karamo is a community college professor, the Republican candidate for Secretary of State in Michigan, and one of the nation’s most prominent Christian nationalist election deniers. Karamo recently received a master’s degree in Christian apologetics from the evangelical Biola University, which has been called one of “the Absolute Worst Campuses for LGBTQ Youth.” She frequently ties her staunch conservatism to her interpretation of Christianity, saying things such as “the fundamental problem in society is the rejection of Christ.”

After the 2020 election, Karamo gained prominence by appearing frequently on Fox News to detail her experience as a poll worker, falsely claiming the election was stolen. She went as far as to testify in front of the State Senate that sacks of votes were dropped off at her polling station in the middle of Election Night. Karamo is part of the “America First Secretary of State Coalition,” a cohort of Secretary of State candidates fighting for “conservative principles and solutions to the corrupt election process nationwide.”

Karamo’s Christian Nationalist Rhetoric

  • Decried secularism in a speech on the steps of the Michigan capitol: “These secularists are destroying our country. We’ve been following secularists for how many years? And look at our kids. They’re depressed, our society is collapsing. So clearly the secularists want to oppress the voice of Christians. They want us to be afraid and I will never be afraid.”

  • Addressing a church outside of Detroit, Karamo encouraged election deniers not to “just whine and bellyache” over election corruption, but to become election workers and run for office “to save our republic”

  • In a 2019 blog post, Karamo wrote: "Now, what are we going to do? Let the feelings of mentally disturbed people rule society, because we are afraid of the Secular Progressives coming after us. Or are we going to speak up, and VOTE, like people who follow Christ should," she wrote.

  • Spoke at a far-right convention hosted by Church Militant in August 2022, where she said part of her passion is “to get more Christians involved in government,” and that she hopes that “at the end of the day” secular people “come to Christ.”

    • Church Militant is an extreme far-right Catholic organization rejected even by the conservative Archbishop of Detroit, designated an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and known for its opposition to Pope Francis, anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and recent trend towards Christian nationalism. Church Militant president and founder Michael Voris is on the False Prophets Dishonorable Mentions list.

  • Has appeared on Christian nationalist movement leader and fellow False Prophet Steve Bannon’s show “War Room

Karamo’s Christian Nationalist Policy Positions

  • Karamo served on the boards of Michigan Right to Life and an anti-abortion-access crisis pregnancy center. She has called abortion a “satanic practice,” “child sacrifice,” and “the greatest crime in our nation’s history.” 

  • On her theology and politics podcast, Karamo said that LGBTQ people and those who have sex outside of marriage “violate God’s creative design” and are indicative of a culture of “sexual brokenness.”

  • Has called public schools “government indoctrination camps.”

  • Spoke at a QAnon conference in 2021, claiming the conference was “about God and Country” and not QAnon.

  • Has supported similar stolen-election conspiracy theories and lies as spread by fellow False Prophets and Christian-nationalist movement leaders Rev. Franklin Graham, General Michael Flynn, Bishop Joseph Strickland, strategist Steve Bannon, and Pastor Tony Perkins.