Karen Thurman

Infobox Officeholder
name=Karen Thurman


imagesize=200px
caption=
order=
office=Chairman of the
Florida Democratic Party
term_start=2005
term_end=Present
lieutenant=
predecessor=Scott Maddox
successor=
office2=United States Representative
order2=
term_start2 =1993
term_end2 =2003
predecessor2=Bill McCollum
successor2=Ginny Brown-Waite
birth_date=January 12, 1951
birth_place=Rapid City, South Dakota
death_date=
death_place=
religion=
profession=
party=Democrat
spouse=John Thurman
footnotes=
website=

Karen L. Thurman is a former U.S. Representative from Florida. She is a Democrat.

She was born on January 12, 1951 in Rapid City, South Dakota, but has spent most of her life in Florida. She received her Associate's Degree from Santa Fe Community College in Starke, Florida in 1970 and her Bachelor's degree in education from the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1973. She is married to John Thurman. They have two children, McLin (Macky) and Liberty Lee, and make their home in Dunnellon, Florida.

Thurman was first elected to public office in 1974, when she won a seat on the city council of Dunnellon, Florida, on which she served until 1983. She served as Mayor of Dunnellon from 1979 to 1981. She served in the Florida State Senate from 1983 to 1993.

Florida gained three congressional districts after the 1990 census. One of them was the 5th District, which stretched from Gainesville to the far northern portion of the Tampa Bay Area. It was an open secret that this district was drawn for Thurman. She was elected to the House from that district in 1992 and was reelected four more times with no serious opposition.

Thurman was recognized as an expert on health, veterans, and tax issues. She was only the sixth woman to serve on the House Ways and Means Committee. On Ways and Means she fought for lower prescription drugs, increased access to health insurance, and tax relief. Prior to her appointment to Ways and Means in 1996, Congresswoman Thurman served on both the House Agriculture Committee and the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.

After the 2000 census, the Republican-controlled Florida legislature reconfigured the 5th so it was virtually coextensive with the State Senate district of that body's President Pro Tem, Ginny Brown-Waite. Nonetheless, Thurman ran for reelection. Even though the redrawn district had gone narrowly for George W. Bush in 2000 (Al Gore had won her old district handily), Thurman just barely lost to Brown-Waite.

In 2005 Thurman was elected Chairman of the Florida Democratic Party (FDP), succeeding Chairman Scott Maddox, who resigned in order to seek the Democratic nomination for governor.

Her son Macky Thurman unsuccessfully ran for the state house in 2006. Her husband was a circuit judge.