Kristen Welker

Kristen Welker (born July 1, 1976) is an American television journalist working for NBC News. She is a White House correspondent based in Washington, D.C., and a co-anchor of Weekend Today, the Saturday edition of Today, alongside Peter Alexander.

Welker is the daughter of Harvey and Julie Welker. Her father is an engineer, her mother a real estate agent. Welker's father is white and her mother is black. She graduated from Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia in 1994 and Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1998. At Harvard, she majored in history and graduated with honors. Welker also interned for Today in 1997.

Welker has worked at ABC affiliates WLNE-TV (2003-2005) in Providence, Rhode Island, and KRCR-TV in Redding, California. She joined NBC in 2005 at affiliate WCAU in Philadelphia, where she was a reporter and weekend anchor. She then joined NBC News in 2010 as a correspondent based at the NBC News West Coast Headquarters in Burbank, California. She became an NBC White House correspondent in December 2011.

Welker regularly represents MSNBC at the daily White House press briefings as well as reports live for various programs on the channel. She occasionally fills in on NBC Nightly News and Today. On January 10, 2020, NBC announced that Welker would become the regular co-anchor of Weekend Today alongside Peter Alexander. She debuted as co-anchor on Weekend Today on January 11, 2020.

On October 22, 2020, Welker moderated the second presidential election debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. She was praised by both Democrats and Republicans for her performance.

Welker married John Hughes, a marketing executive at Merck, on March 4, 2017, in Philadelphia. Welker is not registered with any political party.