On August 6, 1966, she married Edward John Hanley of Endicott, New York. The couple moved to Northern Virginia that same year, and would go on to have two children; son Patrick Keith and daughter Cecelia Anne.[3]
In 1984, Hanley was appointed to the Fairfax County School Board by Providence District Supervisor James M. Scott to replace Ann P. Kahn.[6]
Supervisor Scott announced his resignation in May 1986, and Circuit Court Judge Barnard F. Jennings set a special election to fill the unexpired term for Scott's Providence District seat.[7][8] Hanley defeated Republican State Delegate Stephen E. Gordy in the July 15 election.[9]
The following March, Hanley announced she would seek reelection to a full term as Supervisor from the Providence District.[10] In the November 3 election, Hanley soundly defeated Republican Myron Smith with 62 percent of the vote.[11]
Despite Republican attempts to link her to then chair of the board Audrey Moore and a general sentiment against incumbents, Hanley was able to retain her seat on the board of supervisors in the 1991 elections, defeating Steve Armstrong.[12]
Tom Davis was elected to Congress in 1994, necessitating a special election to fill his vacant seat as chairman of the board of supervisors. Hanley won the February 1995 special election, defeating Springfield Supervisor Elaine McConnell.[13]
Nine months later, Hanley retained the chair by defeating school board chairman Gary L. Jones in the November regular election.[14]
Hanley opted for a less visible presence as chair than some of her predecessors, such as Jack Herrity and Tom Davis, saying that the community did not prefer "show horses over workhorses", and also garnered some criticism as not having a clearly defined vision.[15]
However, the Republicans did not field a candidate against her in the 1999 election, and she handily defeated her three independent challengers, winning by a 3 to 1 margin.
In 2003, Hanley did not seek reelection to the board of supervisors, and instead mounted a primary challenge against Jim Moran for Virginia's 8th congressional district in 2004, after Moran damaged himself politically by saying that American Jews were responsible for pushing the country to war with Iraq and that Jewish leaders could prevent war if they wanted to.[18] She abandoned that campaign in November for family reasons.[19]
^Baker, Donald P.; Baker, Peter (1993-07-01). "FOR WILDER, AN OPPORTUNITY THAT MISSED". The Washington Post. ISSN0190-8286. Retrieved 2015-10-02. Two years ago, Armstrong ran as a Republican against Supervisor Katherine K. Hanley (D-Providence), routinely blasting the failures of the "Moore-Hanley board."
FEC Disclosure Report Search Results, Kate Hanley for Congress (VA-8), Candidate H4VA08083, accessed 2007-11-26, shows a great many individual contributions refunded 2003-12-30 and transfers to other Democrat candidates as late as 2004-09-29