Karin is the second of three daughters born to public school teachers in South St. Paul. After graduating from South St. Paul High School in 1982, Karin briefly attended Augsburg College in Minneapolis before moving east to be with her high school sweetheart, Phil Housley, who had just been drafted by the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres. She got a part-time job and enrolled at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications in 1987.
Over the next decade, Phil’s NHL Hall of Fame hockey career took the Housleys all over the United States and Canada, but Minnesota always remained their “forever home.” They eventually moved back and settled in St. Marys Point, where they raised their family. In 2021, Karin and Phil moved to Stillwater. They have four grown children and five grandkids. The Housleys are members of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Afton.
In 2012, Karin was first elected to the Minnesota Senate; she was re-elected in 2016, 2020, and 2022. Karin has become known as a passionate advocate for senior citizens, veterans, and families, and is proud of the relationships she has built with the communities she represents.
As a state senator, Karin is a bipartisan leader that gets things done. She is an Assistant Minority Leader and the ranking Republican on the Senate Capital Investment Committee. She previously chaired the Senate Aging and Long-Term Care Committee, the first-ever committee focused on long-term care issues. Karin also serves on the housing and jobs committees.
She is running for re-election on November 3, 2026, in Senate District 33.
Karin strongly believes in giving back to her community. She has been a board member of Let’s Go Fishing With Seniors St. Croix Valley since its inception in 2010 and also serves as a board member of Yellow Ribbon of Washington County and the Lower St. Croix Valley Yellow Ribbon Network. She has also served as the honorary chair of the Canvas Health Annual Fundraiser for individuals with mental health and chemical dependency issues, as president of the local Board of Community Thread chapter, and as a board member of the Lower St. Croix Valley Foundation, the Special Olympics Red Carpet Committee, the Washington County Historic Courthouse Advisory Council, the Washington County Agricultural Society, and the Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce.