Karen Carter Peterson (born November 1, 1969) is an African American Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate, having represented the 5th District since 2010. She is also the current Chairwoman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Peterson is the first female, and second African-American, to serve as chair of Louisiana's Democratic Party. She previously served from 1999 to 2010 as the state representative from District 93. Peterson was elected by her colleagues to the position of Louisiana State House Speaker Pro Tempore from 2008 to 2010.
Following Senator Cheryl Gray Evans's resignation in 2010, Peterson easily won a special election that winter to succeed Senator Gray-Evans as the Senator for District 5 for the remainder of Gray's 2007-2011 term. Peterson was re-elected by acclamation in the fall of 2011 for a full four-year term.
Since 2008, Peterson has served as Democratic National Committeewoman for Louisiana, one of three members of the Democratic National Committee from the State, the others being former state party chairman Claude "Buddy" Leach and Ben Jeffers. In 2012, she was elected Chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party by the 210-member Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee, ousting former chair Claude "Buddy" Leach on a vote of 85 to 75.
Read more about Karen Carter Peterson: Background, BOLD Political Organization, Election As Chair of The Louisiana Democratic Party, Loss To Jefferson, 2006, Tobacco Taxation, Support For Gay Rights, Personal Life
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“I don’t like to be idle; in fact, I often feel somewhat guilty unless there is some purpose to what I am doing. But spending a few hours—or a few days—in the woods, swamps or alongside a stream has never seemed to me a waste of time.... I derive special benefit from a period of solitude.”
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