Who Are New Meet the Press Host Kristen Welker’s Parents?

Kristen’s parents are Julie and Harvey Welker, and she was born and raised in Philadelphia, Penn. She last came under scrutiny during the 2020 election when she was selected to moderate one of the presidential debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. That scrutiny came in part because Julie and Harvey are both registered Democrats, and have in the past donated to Democratic candidates.

Julie is a registered real estate agent in Philadelphia and previously ran for a seat on the city council. According to his LinkedIn profile, Harvey is an engineer based out of Pennsylvania. Harvey studied engineering at Dartmouth and ultimately earned a Master’s degree while he was there. He also played some football, and Kristen has shared photos of his time on the gridiron in the past.

Records show that, between 2008 and 2012, Julie and Harvey donated more than $23,000 to Barack Obama, and they’ve also donated to other candidates including Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton.

Before the debate she moderated, Donald Trump called out her parents’ political affiliation, saying that she would not be a fair moderator.

“She’s always been terrible and unfair, just like most of the Fake News reporters, but I’ll still play the game,” he wrote on Twitter at the time.

Some also wondered what Kristen’s ethnicity was following the news that she would be taking over Meet the Press. Her father is white and her mother is Black, which means she is biracial. Ultimately, though, Kristen’s career has proven time and again that what matters most to her is her ability to report truthfully on those in power.

Although she is registered to vote, Kristen has been an unaffiliated voter since she first registered in 2012. This is a move that many reporters make to ensure that they cannot be accused of being unfairly biased toward one political party or the other.

It’s unclear how the show might change now that Kristen is hosting it, but given what a longstanding institution it is, Meet the Press is one of the best hosting jobs a TV journalists can get. What’s more, Kristen will be the first woman to host the show since 1953, when Martha Roundtree left the program after becoming its very first host.