Karen Diebel

Diebel, a former Winter Park, Fla., city commissioner, ran for Congress in 2010. She lost an August GOP primary to Sandra Adams, an Orlando Republican who ousted freshman Democrat Suzanne Kosmas that fall. Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate, was Diebel’s most prominent supporter, and she lost the primary by just 543 votes. Sessions, 57, confirmed in July 2011 that he had separated from his first wife, Juanita, after 27 years of marriage. They have two children. By the following month, the divorce was final. Diebel, 45, is a widow with three sons. Among their common interests: She has worked as an executive at Verizon. Sessions worked at Southwestern Bell before his election to Congress. Her husband, an obstetrician, was killed while helping a stranger on the side of a highway in June 2002. At the time of her husband’s death, she was a director of global solutions for Verizon and worked on business and technological problems for Fortune 100 companies. A 1989 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, she is reportedly “well versed” in Catholic teaching and applies it to her views on public policy. Diebel is the granddaughter of Irish immigrants and most of her family lives in Chicago.