Karen Handel

Karen Christine Handel (née Walker; born April 18, 1962) 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.

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.

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.

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 (DOJ) ordered a halt to the state's "voter verification" effort (denying it approval under the Voting Rights Act of 1965), determining that "thousands of citizens who are in fact eligible to vote under Georgia law have been flagged", and that the program was "flawed ... [and] 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.

In February 2017, Handel announced a run for U.S. House of Representatives in the 2017 special election, to fill a vacancy in Georgia's 6th congressional district, against Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff. Former U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss endorsed Handel.

During the April 18, 2017, primary, Handel was the top Republican vote-getter in the 6th District race. No candidate reached a majority of the vote, leading to a run-off election on June 20, 2017. Handel finished second in the jungle primary, and faced Ossoff in the run-off. Ossoff received 48.1% of the vote, and Handel received 19.8% of the vote. U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated her on advancing to the run-off, and she welcomed his support.

According to The Washington Post, during the primary, Handel avoided mentioning Trump, but embraced him in the general election. She said that she would welcome Trump if he wanted to campaign with her. Handel and Trump held a fund-raiser in April 2017.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan campaigned for Handel, saying, "We need someone who is tested and true", and Handel was endorsed by the United States Chamber of Commerce, Susan B. Anthony List, National Right to Life Committee, and the NRA Political Victory Fund.

On June 15, 2017, Handel's home was the target of a "suspicious package" containing a "white powdery substance" and a threatening letter. Several of Handel's neighbors received similar suspicious packages in the mail. Handel stated, "It is frustrating that my neighbors have been affected in this way. Steve and I know that running for public office often brings these kinds of challenges, but our neighbors did not sign up for this." The FBI was called in to investigate.

In 2014, Handel described herself as an "unwavering conservative fighter", rather than a "go-along-to-get-along" Republican. In the campaign for the 2014 Senate seat, she said that she would be a senator in the mold of Ted Cruz, and called on Mitch McConnell to resign from the Republican leadership of the Senate.

During the 115th Congress, Handel's votes aligned with President Donald Trump’s preferred positions 98.4% of the time, according to political reporting website FiveThirtyEight's online tracker. She deviated from Trump's position when she voted for a 2017 bill imposing sanctions on Russia, Iran, and North Korea; the bill was opposed by Trump (though he later signed it into law), but it passed the House 419–3.

Handel voiced support for Trump's May 9, 2017, firing of FBI Director James Comey, stating, "it's been clear for some time that FBI Director Comey has lost the confidence of Republicans, Democrats, and broader institutions, and his removal as FBI Director was probably overdue". Regarding reports that Trump had disclosed classified information to Russia, Handel said that such reports represented "potentially a gross assumption" by the press, stating, "we have investigations underway... I would suggest that all of us would let the process play out, and let the facts take us where the facts take us." In June 2017, she said that she was troubled by some of Trump's proposed cuts to federal research funds. She has also criticized Trump's use of Twitter. In May 2018, Handel voiced her support for the Special Counsel investigation, but added: "Do it expeditiously. Do it fairly and justly, and move it along."

Handel has said that the federal government's role in combating climate change should be "limited so that state and local government lead the way". She supported Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. Asked if she accepted the scientific consensus on climate change, Handel said, "Clearly, there have been changes in the climate", but did not say whether human activities contribute to climate change.

Handel favored repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). She had expressed support for Tom Price's legislation to replace Obamacare. She supported the May 2017 version of the American Health Care Act, the Republican Party's replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act. In a June 2017 debate, she stated that she would never support a bill that reduced protections for pre-existing conditions, and said that the AHCA did no such thing, while CNN noted that independent fact-checkers have found that the May 2017 version of AHCA would reduce protections for pre-existing conditions. Handel said, "I reject the premise of CBO", referring to the Congressional Budget Office estimate that 23 million more Americans would be uninsured if the May 2017 version of AHCA were to become law.

Following her defeat to return to the U.S. House of Representatives, Handel served as president and CEO of Carroll Tomorrow, the economic development organization for Carroll County from 2021 to 2023.

Handel is married to Steve Handel, and resides in Roswell, Georgia.