Not a single female Republican running for higher office advanced to a runoff last week. Karen Handel, one of those candidates stymied at the polls, hopes she can help another contender appeal to women.
At her formal endorsement of Rep. Jack Kingston's Senate bid on Wednesday, she noted the GOP drought but said she could help the Savannah Republican counter Democrat Michelle Nunn's message. Handel picked Kingston over businessman David Perdue in the July 22 runoff.
"Women will look at who Jack surrounds himself with," she said, adding: "I'm confident that Jack and I will be able to work together and ensure that as U.S. senator he will have women in key roles and be a supporter of women in key races."
The lack of top-ticket Republican candidates is a concern for the GOP. None of the female Republicans running for superintendent made the runoff. Ditto for Tricia Pridemore, Vivian Childs and Donna Sheldon, contenders for U.S. House seats. Handel, the former Georgia Secretary of State, finished in third place in her Senate bid.
Handel once said she would welcome a "war on women" type challenge from Nunn that targeted GOP opposition to abortion rights. Now she hopes to counteract a Democratic attack along those lines against Kingston.
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Handel said Perdue courted her support but it didn't take long for her to reject his entreaty. That's no surprise given their troubled history.
Perdue's campaign promptly rolled out a host of Handel's zingers aimed at Kingston. Here's a sampling:
"Sending people up there to stay 20 years in the House of Representatives, where they just sit there to keep the seat warm waiting for a seat to open up, move over then to the Senate and go there … that is just stupid. Its no way to try to solve any problems in the country."
Handel, for her part, said Wednesday that her criticisms of the congressman were history. She said Kingston was a "consistent" conservative with a proven track record.
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