Karen Handel
Karen Christine Handel is an American businesswoman and former politician. A member of the Republican Party, Handel served as chair of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners from 2003 to 2006, as Secretary of State of Georgia from 2007 to 2010, and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2017 to 2019.
In 2010, Handel ran for Governor of Georgia but narrowly lost the Republican primary to Nathan Deal, who attacked Handel as overly supportive of gay rights and abortion rights. In 2011, Handel was appointed Senior Vice President of public policy at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a charity focused on fighting breast cancer. Handel pushed the charity to cut off Komen's funding for breast-cancer screening at Planned Parenthood, reportedly because of her personal anti-abortion views. In the ensuing uproar over politicization of the charity, Handel resigned from Komen in February 2012.
In 2017, Handel became the first Republican woman from Georgia elected to Congress after winning a special election to fill a vacancy in Georgia's 6th congressional district. In the 2018 general election, Handel narrowly lost her seat to Democrat Lucy McBath. On November 3, 2020, Handel lost to McBath in a rematch, earning a lower percentage of the vote than she did in 2018.
Early life and education
Handel was born Karen Christine Walker in Washington, D. C., on April 18, 1962, and grew up in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. After graduating in May 1980 from Frederick Douglass High School in Upper Marlboro, Handel attended both Prince George's Community College, in Largo, Maryland, and the University of Maryland, University College, in Adelphi, Maryland, but did not earn a degree. She then went to work for Hallmark Cards. Later, she served as deputy chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle's wife, Marilyn, where she worked to promote breast cancer awareness and research.Handel worked at several major companies, including the global eye-care company Ciba Vision and the international accounting firm KPMG. She served as president and CEO of the Greater Fulton County Chamber of Commerce. From December 2002 to November 2003, Handel served as deputy chief of staff to Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, where she worked as a policy advisor and supervised constituent services, the Governor's Mansion, and general administration services.
Career
Early career
In November 2003, Handel was elected chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners in a special election to replace Mike Kenn, receiving 58% of the popular vote, and continued to serve in that role until 2006. She had run for commissioner unsuccessfully in November 2002, while serving as the president and CEO of North Fulton County Chamber of Commerce. Handel chose not to run for re-election as the chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, in order to run for Georgia Secretary of State.Secretary of State of Georgia
In August 2006, Handel won the Republican primary election for Secretary of State of Georgia, defeating state Senator Bill Stephens of Canton. Handel received 56.6% of the vote, to Stephens's 42.4%. In the November 2006 general election, Handel defeated Democratic nominee Gail Buckner, receiving 54.1% of the vote, to Buckner's 41.8%. Handel was the first elected Republican secretary of state in Georgia history. She served as Georgia Secretary of State from 2007 to 2010.Soon after taking office as Georgia Secretary of State, Handel began a project to purge voter rolls. The procedure involved matching data with information in various sources, such as the Georgia Department of Driver Services database or the Social Security Administration database. Some eligible voters were told that they were "non-citizens", although, in fact, they were citizens. Voter suppression allegations were raised, and the rule became the subject of a federal lawsuit by the ACLU of Georgia and MALDEF, which accused Handel's office of engaging in a "systematic purging procedure" expressly barred by federal law within 90 days of elections.
In 2009, the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division ordered a halt to the state's "voter verification" effort, determining that "thousands of citizens who are in fact eligible to vote under Georgia law have been flagged", and that the program was "flawed... frequently subjects a disproportionate number of African-American, Asian, and/or Hispanic voters to additional and, more importantly, erroneous burdens on the right to register to vote". This marked the first time since the 1990s that the Justice Department had denied approval to a change in Georgia election practice.
Handel defended her program, asserting that it was appropriate and necessary. A federal judge in Atlanta later dismissed a lawsuit that had accused Handel's successor, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, of illegally bumping Georgia voters off the state's rolls ahead of the 2016 presidential election. In the 21-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. said that the state had taken a "reasonable and non-discriminatory" approach in trying to reach voters who had not cast a ballot within the past seven years to confirm their addresses.
2010 gubernatorial election
In March 2009, Handel announced her decision to run for Georgia governor. Handel resigned as secretary of state in December 2009 in order to focus on her campaign for governor full-time. Handel received the endorsement of former Republican 2008 Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, as well as former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.On July 20, 2010, Handel received 34% of the vote in the Republican Party primary election, and former Congressman Nathan Deal received 23%. Since neither candidate received a majority, they faced off in the Republican gubernatorial run-off on August 10, 2010. The primary campaign was particularly heated; Deal attacked Handel as insufficiently anti-abortion and his allies portrayed Handel as a "barren woman", claiming that her infertility rendered her untrustworthy on reproductive-rights issues. Deal also attacked Handel for her past association with the gay-rights group Log Cabin Republicans, given staunch opposition to gay rights among Republican voters. Handel falsely denied membership with Log Cabin Republicans and accused Deal of "bigoted remarks", but lost the run-off election to Deal by 50.2% to 49.8%, with about 2,500 votes separating them out of nearly 580,000 cast. She declined to request a recount, and conceded to Deal the next day.
Susan G. Komen Foundation
In April 2011, Handel was hired as senior vice president of public policy at the breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In this position, she was responsible for leading the organization's federal and state advocacy efforts, including management of Advocacy Alliance.At the end of January 2012, Komen stated it would cut ties with Planned Parenthood, the largest single provider of abortion services in the U.S. The organization attributed the decision to a newly adopted policy not to fund organizations under investigation by a government agency. Republicans in Congress initiated an investigation into Planned Parenthood's alleged usage of federal funds to finance the organization's abortion services.
On February 2, 2012, Jeffrey Goldberg reported in The Atlantic that "three sources with direct knowledge of the Komen decision-making process told me that the rule was adopted in order to create an excuse to cut-off Planned Parenthood". Goldberg further reported that his anonymous sources indicated that the decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood was driven by Handel, who opposes abortion.
On February 5, 2012, The Huffington Post reported that "e-mails between Komen leadership... confirm Handel's sole 'authority' in crafting and implementing the Planned Parenthood policy... Handel submitted the new grant criteria to Komen leadership in November, and the board approved it in December, at which point Komen's top public health official resigned 'on the spot'."
Four days after the decision to cut ties with Planned Parenthood, Komen reversed the decision and announced that it would amend the policy to "make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature, and not political". A few days later, on February 7, 2012, Handel resigned from Komen.
The Los Angeles Times described Komen's decision to cut ties with Planned Parenthood as "one of the great PR faux pas of the decade", with Komen losing 22% of its funding in the subsequent fiscal year. Komen officials also attributed much of the lost funding to the decision to cut ties with Planned Parenthood.
Memoir
On September 11, 2012, Handel published a book, Planned Bullyhood, about her tenure as vice president of public policy at Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In the book, Handel defended Komen's short-lived decision to end grants to Planned Parenthood. She refers to Planned Parenthood as "a blatantly partisan" group of "bullies" that began a war with Komen over $700,000, an amount of money "inconsequential" to its $1 billion budget.2014 Senate election
On May 17, 2013, Handel announced that she would be a candidate for the United States Senate. Incumbent senator Saxby Chambliss did not seek re-election. Handel was endorsed by former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin in March 2014.One of her 2014 opponents, David Perdue, criticized her for not having a college degree. Julianne Thompson, co-chair of the Atlanta Tea Party, replied to the charge by saying: "One of the most important things we look for in a leader is that person's ability to identify with the citizens they intend to govern."
In May 2014, Handel came in third in the Republican Senate primary, with 21.96% of the vote; she failed to qualify for the run-off election.