Kristen Welker

Kristen Welker is the 13th moderator of Meet the Press, where she assumed the moderator chair in September 2023. She is the second woman and first journalist of color to moderate the program.

Since assuming the moderator’s chair, she has conducted news making interviews with a huge range of administration officials, candidates, elected leaders, and foreign heads of state – including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, every major 2024 Republican presidential candidate, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, House Speaker Mike Johnson and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and many more.

In November 2023, Welker co-moderated the third Republican Presidential Debate in Miami, appearing alongside NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt. The debate received widespread praise from writers and pundits from across the political spectrum, who hailed it as a substantive discussion that did not let candidates off the hook. Mediaite called it “the best debate of the 2024 primary.”

Welker has been honored by numerous journalistic organizations throughout her career. She is a recipient of the National Press Club’s highest honor, the Fourth Estate Award, and in 2024 received the Radio Television Digital News Foundation’s First Amendment Award for her commitment to a free press. She has also received recognition from the Washington Association of Black Journalists, the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association, and more.

Previously, Welker was co-anchor of Weekend TODAY and NBC News Chief White House Correspondent, where her political reporting appeared across all NBC News and MSNBC platforms, including NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, TODAY, Meet the Press, and NBCNews.com.

She began covering the White House for NBC News in Dec. 2011, travelling domestically and internationally with President Obama, the First Lady, and then-Vice President Biden. Welker also covered President Trump’s administration, the 2020 presidential race and led the network’s coverage of all aspects of the Biden administration.

During the 2020 general presidential election, Welker moderated the final presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and now-President Joe Biden on Oct. 22, 2020 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Welker received universal praise for her performance, and USA TODAY wrote that she was “praised for ‘masterclass’ debate moderation.” In Nov. 2019, Welker co-moderated the fifth Democratic presidential debate hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, GA alongside Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell, and Ashley Parker of The Washington Post.

During the 2016 presidential election, Welker reported from the trail covering former Sec. Hillary Clinton’s campaign. She broke the exclusive that Vice President Joe Biden decided not to run for office that cycle. 

Prior to the White House beat, Welker was a network correspondent based in Burbank, California, joining NBC News in 2010. During her first year at the network, Welker was nominated for a National Emmy Award for her role in NBC News’ midterm election coverage. She won a National Emmy Award for her role in NBC News’ coverage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Welker was also a researcher on “Weekend TODAY” early in her career and an intern for “TODAY” while in college.

Welker previously worked at WCAU-TV, NBC’s Philadelphia owned and operated station, where she anchored the NBC 10 weekend newscasts and started as a general assignment reporter in April 2005. She also previously worked at WLNE-TV in Providence, Rhode Island and KRCR-TV in Redding, California.

Welker, a native of Philadelphia, graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a Bachelor’s Degree in American history. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband John Hughes and daughter Margot Lane.