Karen Handel

Karen Handel represented Georgia's 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2017 - 2019 and was the first Republican woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress from Georgia. Handel won a special election on June 20, 2017, to replace Tom Price, who was confirmed as United States secretary of health and human services for the Trump administration in February 2017. She lost her 2018 re-election bid.

Handel was born April 18, 1962, in Washington, DC, and grew up in Maryland. She attended both Prince George's Community College and the University of Maryland, University College, but did not complete a degree. She worked for several major companies before beginning her career in politics.

Handel served as deputy chief of staff to Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue from December 2002 to November 2003; as chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners from 2003 to 2006; as president and CEO of the Greater Fulton County Chamber of Commerce from 2003 to 2006; and as Georgia secretary of state from 2007 to 2010. She was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of Georgia in 2010 and an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination to the United States Senate in 2014. In 2011, Handel was appointed senior vice president of public policy at Susan G. Komen for the Cure but left in February 2012, following the foundation's decisions to end and then restore funding for Planned Parenthood, which she opposed.

For information on Handel's policy subject areas, committee appointments and sponsored/co-sponsored legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, please visit her profile on https://www.congress.gov.

Sources:

Ballotpedia (n.d.). Karen Handel. Retrieved on November 21, 2022, from https://ballotpedia.org/Karen_Handel