After both parties poured millions of
dollars into a special election in Georgia, Republican Karen Handel
won Tuesday's race, fending off upstart Democrat Jon Ossoff.
Handel, who has a long record opposing
LGBT rights, will represent Georgia's 6th congressional
district, which has historically leaned heavily Republican.
In 2010, when she was seeking the
state's Republican gubernatorial nomination, Handel laughed when
asked whether she supports marriage equality.
“Why is marriage between one man and
one woman? Are you serious?” she answered with a laugh.
“I don't want to see any taxpayer
funding going towards … a couple that is not married. And in our
state and for me, marriage is between one man and one woman,”
Handel said.
Handel also said that she would
“absolutely” consider prohibiting gay and lesbian couples from
adopting children.
“I think that for a child to be in a
household – in a family in a household with a situation where the
parents are not married, as in one man and one woman, is not the best
household for a child,” she
told reporter Doug Richards, who was traveling with the Handel
campaign.
At the time, Florida was the only state
with an outright ban on adoption based on sexual orientation. Later
that year, Florida's highest court struck down the law.