Handel, Karen, 1962-

Karen Christine Handel (née Walker; born April 18, 1962) is an American businesswoman and politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2017 to 2019 and as Secretary of State of Georgia from 2007 to 2010.

Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, she attended 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 Second Lady Marilyn Quayle. In this role, she worked to promote breast cancer awareness and research. Handel next worked at several major companies, including the global eye-care company Ciba Vision and the international accounting firm KPMG. Handel and her husband, Steve, moved to the Atlanta area in 1994. 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.

In 2006, Handel won election as Georgia’s secretary of state. As secretary of state, she audited Georgia’s electronic voting machines, worked to ensure early voting, enforced Georgia’s strict voter identification law, and installed tighter ethics rules. At the end of 2009, Handel resigned as secretary of state to run for governor. After losing the Republican primary, Handel worked for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, before stepping down as vice president of public policy in 2012 amid a dispute over the foundation’s relationship with Planned Parenthood. Two years later Handel lost the Republican nomination for the United States Senate. In 2017, after Representative Tom Price resigned from the House, Handel narrowly won the June 2017 special election to replace him. She sponsored five bills during her time in Congress, two of which passed the House. On April 27, 2018, she introduced the Standard Merger and Acquisitions Reviews Through Equal Rules Act of 2018—the SMARTER Act— which would overhaul how the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice reviewed potential violations of antitrust law. Her other successful measure was the Community Safety and Security Act of 2018, which Handel submitted in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Sessions v. Dimaya, which said that the phrase “crime of violence” in America’s immigration law was “unconstitutionally vague.” Neither of the bills she sponsored that passed the House would pass the Senate.

In 2018, Handel narrowly lost re-election to Democrat Lucy McBath, a gun control activist whose teenage son had been shot and killed six years earlier. McBath took 50.5 percent of the vote to Handel’s 49.5 percent. A 2020 rematch had McBath besting Handel by 8 points.