Fred Karger is an American political consultant, gay rights activist, watchdog, political pundit, writer, public speaker, author, former actor, and 2012 candidate for the Republican nomination for President. Although he has never held elected office, Karger has worked on ten presidential campaigns and served as a senior consultant during the campaigns of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Gerald Ford.
Karger was a partner of the Dolphin Group, a California-based political consulting firm for 27 years. He retired in 2004 and has since worked as an LGBT activist. He began in 2006 trying to save a Laguna Beach, California landmark gay bar, the Boom Boom Room. In 2008 he founded Californians Against Hate – now Rights Equal Rights and led boycotts of four of the biggest donors to California’s Proposition 8. He successfully settled three of those boycotts. Immediately after Prop 8 passed, Fred called for the State of California to investigate The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) and later the states of Maine and California to investigate the anti-LGBT National Organization for Marriage (NOM). In the summer of 2012 he launched a global Boycott of Amway after its owners, the DeVos family, contributed $500,000 to NOM.
Fred’s running for the Republican nomination for president in 2012 made him the first openly gay presidential candidate from a major political party in American history.
He ran as the only moderate Republican in the race during his two-and-a-half year-long campaign and appeared on six state ballots; New Hampshire, Michigan, Puerto Rico, Maryland, California, and Utah. Fred beat Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in New Hampshire and Congressman Ron Paul in Puerto Rico. He campaigned in over 30 states and received widespread praise for paving the way for future LGBT candidates.
Karger has been interviewed on numerous national, international, and local television, radio, and web shows including; Rachel Maddow; David Frost; Thomas Roberts; Chris Matthews; Lawrence O’Donnell, and Comedy Central. He has appeared on Fox Business Channel, CBS News, ABC News, CNN, Fox News, Current TV, Russian TV, BBC’s HARDtalk, HuffPost Live, Sky News, Univision, Nippon Television, ABC News – Australia, Fox News Radio – The Alan Colmes Show, SiriusXM – The Michelangelo Signorile Show, and NPR.
He’s been featured in hundreds of newspaper stories and blogs including The Washington Post; New York Times; Los Angeles Times; Chicago Tribune; Boston Globe; Politico; The Hill; Times of London; The Guardian; Jerusalem Post; Puerto Rico Daily Sun; Detroit Free Press; The Atlantic; Daily Beast; Jewish Journal and the Sacramento Bee.
Fred has also been a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post; The Guardian; Alan Colmes’ Liberaland; Fox & Hounds; The Advocate; David Mixner’s, Live from Hell’s Kitchen, and David Frum’s, Frum Forum.
Member SAG-AFTRA.