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.