Your Party Chair

Congresswoman Karen L. Thurman

Congresswoman Thurman is the elected Chair of the Florida Democratic Party. Since assuming the role of Chair in 2005, Thurman has worked tirelessly to improve the infrastructure of the Party. Through her dedicated leadership, the Party has made huge gains including electing our first Cabinet official since 1998, picking up three Congressional seats, nine State House seats, and helping deliver Florida's 27 electoral votes for President Barack Obama.

From 1993-2003, U.S. Rep. Karen Thurman represented Florida's 5th Congressional District. Throughout her tenure, Rep. Thurman had been a recognized leader on behalf of seniors, veterans, working families and children. She worked to improve access to quality health care for all Americans and consistently advocated for greater tax relief for working families. She championed ways to reduce the size of government and free business from needless regulations. Congresswoman Thurman was a strong, independent voice in defending the freedoms guaranteed to the American people under the laws of the U.S. Constitution.

Congresswoman Thurman was only the sixth woman to serve on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in its 200-plus year history. As a Member of the Health Subcommittee on Ways and Means, she spoke frequently on behalf of the uninsured and seniors. She worked to lower prescription drug prices and to protect seniors from drug price discrimination. She was also a strong advocate for fair tax relief. She supported providing middle income Americans with major tax reductions in the areas of capital gains relief, the estate tax, child assistance, education and retirement as well as extending unemployment benefits and providing temporary business tax deductions. As well, Congresswoman Thurman led the fight to change federal funding formulas that shortchanged Florida's seniors, veterans and poor residents.

Having grown up as the daughter of an Air Force Sergeant, Congresswoman Thurman is a devoted advocate on behalf of veterans, military retirees and our men and women on active duty. In the House, she authored legislation to create a pilot program that led to establishing a prescription drug mail-order pharmacy program for military retirees and their families. The broader legislation also provided permanent lifetime TRICARE eligibility and prescription drug coverage. She sponsored a measure that resulted in a funding allocation change for veterans' health care that has brought millions to Florida and southern Georgia since 1997 and enabled the opening of additional community-based outpatient VA medical clinics across the state.

Congresswoman Thurman first became involved with government in her hometown of Dunnellon. While working as a math teacher at Dunnellon Middle School, her students encouraged her to run for a vacant seat on the Dunnellon City Council. She won that race and went on to serve seven years on the Council, including two terms as mayor.

In 1982, at the young age of 31, she won election to the Florida State Senate. While there, she became the first woman to chair the Senate Agriculture Committee. She also chaired the Committee on Professional Regulation and the Committee on Parimutuel Regulation.

Congresswoman Thurman was born in 1951, in Rapid City, South Dakota and is a graduate of Sante Fe Community College and the University of Florida. She resides in Dunnellon with her husband, John Thurman, with whom she has raised two children, McLin (Macky) and Liberty Lee. Thurman has three grandchildren: Tucker, Karlee, and Madison.