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In the battle for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia, one candidate is getting schooled in what not to say.

The drama started with a diss: Republican candidate David Perdue knocked Republican rival Karen Handel for not having a college degree. "There's a high school graduate in this race, OK? I'm sorry, but these issues are so much broader, so complex," Perdue said at an event. "There's only one candidate in this race that's ever lived outside the United States. How can you bring value to a debate about the economy unless you have any understanding about...what it takes to compete in the global economy?"

The remarks, made in January, were caught on video and sent to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by an unnamed source. The paper posted the video online in early April. And then a storm began.

"Some in this race think the problems in Washington are a little too complex for a gal like me," Handel quipped at a luncheon a day after the comments surfaced.

For her campaign, the dig became a gift, providing a golden opportunity to discuss her hard-won accomplishments. Handel says she left a troubled home in Maryland at age 17, then finished high school and made her own way, eventually serving as Georgia Secretary of State. "My mom was not a well woman. She had a very severe alcohol problem. It was very unstable in that environment," she told NBC News in her first extended interview since the flap began.

"I don't talk in too much detail about it, and here's why: My father is still alive and I don't want to ever embarrass him," she said. "For me, the best decision was to remove myself from what was becoming a more and more volatile situation. I was able to live with another family and finish up high school. I tried to remember that as bad as I thought things were for me, someone else had it a whole lot worsethere was no point in me sitting around whining and boohooing."

Sarah Palin speaks at a county women's group meeting as she campaigns for Karen Handel, right, on April 3, 2014, in Union City, Ga.

Handel is no stranger to controversy. She was an executive at Susan G. Komen for the Cure when the breast-cancer charity came under fire in 2012 for a decision to phase out a grant to Planned Parenthood, then reversed the move amid a public backlash.

The recent dustup with Perdue "very much illustrated just how out of touch he is with the majority of Georgians," she said. "For all of us, our responsibility in life is to make the most of what comes our way. I have walked in the shoes of an average person."

Perdue's camp told NBC he has worked hard to achieve success himself. "David certainly did not mean to offend anyone with his comment," said spokesman Derrick Dickey. "Like most Americans, he wasnt handed anything on a silver platter." Perdue, a former CEO of both Reebok and Dollar General, "grew up the son of two teachers in middle Georgia and worked his way through school by taking construction and warehouse jobs to pay the bills," his spokesman said. A cousin of former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, the candidate has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Georgia Tech, according to his website.

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