Gabrielle Dee Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is an American retired politician and gun violence prevention advocate. She served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing from January 2007 until January 2012, when she resigned due to a severe brain injury suffered during an assassination attempt. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to the U.S. Congress.
Born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Giffords graduated from Scripps College and Cornell University. After initially moving to New York City, where she worked in regional economic development for Price Waterhouse, she returned to Arizona to work as the CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, a family business started by her grandfather. She served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2001 until 2003 and the Arizona Senate from 2003 until 2005 when she was elected to the U.S. House.
Giffords had just begun her third Congressional term in January 2011 when she was shot in the head in an assassination attempt and mass shooting near Tucson during an event with constituents. Giffords has since recovered much of her ability to walk, speak, read, and write. She was greeted by a standing ovation upon her return to the House floor in August 2011. She attended President Obama's State of the Union address on January 24, 2012, and appeared on the floor of the House the following day, at which time she formally submitted her resignation, receiving a standing ovation and accolades from her colleagues and the leadership of the House.
A moderate in Congress, Giffords has devoted her post-Congressional life to advocating for gun violence prevention and gun safety laws. In January 2013, she and her husband launched Americans for Responsible Solutions, a non-profit organization and super-PAC that later merged with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence to become the organization known as Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. She is married to former Space Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly, who is the senior senator from Arizona.
Early life and education Gabrielle Dee Giffords was born on June 8, 1970, and grew up in Tucson, Arizona; her parents were Gloria Kay (née Fraser) and Spencer J. Giffords. She was raised in a mixed religious environment, as her mother was a Christian Scientist and her father was Jewish. Her paternal grandfather, Akiba Hornstein, was a Jewish emigrant from Lithuania who changed his name to Giffords to avoid anti-Semitism in the United States. Through her father, Giffords is a second cousin of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.
Giffords graduated from Tucson's University High School. She is a former Girl Scout. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Latin American History from Scripps College in California in 1993; and spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Chihuahua, Mexico. She returned to graduate school, earning a Master's degree in Regional Planning from Cornell University in 1996. She focused her studies on Mexican-American relations.
Giffords worked as an associate for regional economic development at Price Waterhouse in New York City. In 1996, she became president and CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, a local chain of auto service centers founded by her grandfather. The business was sold to Compañia Goodyear Del Peru in 2000. At the time of the sale, she commented on the difficulties local businesses face when competing against large national firms.
Since 2001, she has practiced Judaism exclusively and belongs to Congregation Chaverim, a Reform synagogue, in Tucson. In 2021, Giffords celebrated her bat mitzvah at the Chaverim, concluding a process two decades in the making.
Arizona legislature
Elections Giffords switched her party affiliation from Republican to Democratic in 2000 and was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2001. She was elected to the Arizona Senate in the fall of 2002, at the time the youngest woman elected to that body. She took office in January 2003 and was re-elected in 2004. She resigned from the Arizona Senate on December 1, 2005, in preparation for her congressional campaign.
Tenure In early 2005, Giffords observed that "the 2004 election took its toll on our bipartisan coalition" and that as a result "a number of significant problems will receive far less attention than they deserve." She highlighted among these, the lack of high-paying jobs or necessary infrastructure, rapid growth, and inward migration that threatened the environment and "strain[ed] ... education, health care, and transportation", and unresolved problems such as Students First; Arnold v. Sarn; repayments due under Ladewig v. Arizona; the No Child Left Behind mandate; low educational achievement; health care costs; and the demands of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. She said that Arizona was not alone in facing such challenges.
Expanding health care access was an issue pursued by Giffords while she served in the state legislature. She also pushed for bills related to mental health and was named by the Mental Health Association of Arizona as the 2004 Legislator of the Year. Giffords earned the Sierra Club's Most Valuable Player award.
In the legislature, Giffords worked on the bipartisan Children's Caucus, which sought to improve education and health care for Arizona's children. Critics of this plan argued that it amounted to taxpayer-funded daycare. She worked with Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano to promote all-day kindergarten. Giffords supported raising more money for schools "through sponsorship of supplemental state aid through bonds and tax credits that could be used for school supplies." She was awarded Arizona Family Literacy's Outstanding Legislator for 2003.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections 2006
Giffords launched her first candidacy for Arizona's 8th congressional district in the U.S. Congress on January 24, 2006. The campaign received national attention early on as the seat was considered a likely pick-up for the Democratic Party. Prominent Democrats, including Tom Daschle, Robert Reich, Janet Napolitano, and Bill Clinton, endorsed her. EMILY's List endorsed Giffords early in the campaign cycle. The Sierra Club and the Arizona Education Association also endorsed her. On September 12, 2006, Giffords won her party's nomination in the primary election.
Her Republican opponent in the general election was Randy Graf, a conservative former state senator known for his enforcement-only position on immigration. Graf had run against Jim Kolbe in the 2004 GOP primary and had announced his candidacy in 2006 before Kolbe announced his retirement. The Republican establishment was somewhat cool toward Graf, believing he might be too conservative for the district. The national GOP took the unusual step of endorsing one of the more moderate candidates in the primary. Graf won anyway, helped by a split in the Republican moderate vote between two candidates.
Not long after the primary, Congressional Quarterly changed its rating of the race to "Leans Democrat." By late September, the national GOP had pulled most of its funding, effectively conceding the seat to Giffords. Giffords won the race on November 7, 2006, with 54 percent of the vote. Graf received 42 percent. The rest of the vote went to minor candidates. Giffords's victory was portrayed as evidence that Americans are accepting towards comprehensive immigration reform. She was the first Jewish woman elected to Congress from Arizona.
2008
In 2008, Giffords was elected to a second term. Republican Tim Bee, a childhood classmate and former colleague in the Arizona State Senate, ran against her. Bee was the president of the Arizona State Senate and considered a strong challenger in the race. Despite native son John McCain's running as the Republican presidential candidate that year, Democrat Giffords was reelected with 56.20 percent of the vote to Bee's 41.45 percent.
2010
On November 5, 2010, Giffords was declared the victor after a close race against Republican Jesse Kelly. Kelly, an Iraq War veteran (no relation to Mark Kelly), was listed as a top-ten Tea Party candidate to watch by Politico, and described by The Arizona Republic as highly conservative even compared to Sarah Palin. Giffords had been targeted for defeat by Sarah Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC.
Giffords participated in the reading of the United States Constitution on the floor of the House of Representatives on January 6, 2011; she read the First Amendment.
Tenure Following the November 2006 election, Giffords was sworn in as a congresswoman on January 3, 2007. She was the third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to serve in the U.S. Congress. In her inaugural speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, Giffords advocated a comprehensive immigration reform package, including modern technology to secure the border, more border patrol agents, tough employer sanctions for businesses that knowingly hire undocumented immigrants, and a guest-worker program. In her first month in office, Giffords voted in favor of increased federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research; raising the minimum wage; endorsing the 9/11 Commission recommendations; new rules for the House of Representatives targeting ethical issues; and the repeal of $14 billion of subsidies to big oil companies, in favor of renewable energy subsidies and the founding of the Strategic Renewable Energy Reserve.
During the 2007 session of Congress, Giffords introduced a bill (H.R. 1441)THOMAS Search Results: H.R.1441. Library of Congress. Retrieved March 9, 2008. to forbid the sale of F-14 aircraft parts on the open market to prevent them from being acquired by Iran.House Votes Again To Ban Sales Of F-14 Parts To Iran. Aero-News Network, June 13, 2007. Retrieved March 9, 2008. Giffords advocated for a national day of recognition for cowboys as one of her first actions. She voted for the contentious May 2007 Iraq Emergency Supplemental Spending bill, saying, "I cannot, in good conscience, allow the military to run out of money while American servicemen and women are being attacked every day".Stanton, Billie. Stanton: Democrats damned by Iraq war vote. Tucson Citizen June 5, 2007. Retrieved March 9, 2008.
In the 2011 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election, Giffords was one of 18 Democrats to cast their vote for someone other than Nancy Pelosi (the leader of the House Democratic Caucus). Giffords cast her vote for Congressman John Lewis.Congressional Record—House, Vol. 157, Pt. 1, January 5, 2011, p. 76 Arizona's two other Democratic House members voted for Pelosi. Giffords's spokesperson characterized her vote for Lewis, "signal[ing] her desire for courageous leadership and high moral standards at a critical time in our nation's history," citing Lewis as being, "one of our nation's most prominent civil rights leaders and a hero to all Americans."
Giffords was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition and the New Democrat Coalition. She was a co-founder of the Congressional Motorcycle Safety Caucus. Until her husband's retirement, she was the only member of the U.S. Congress whose spouse was an active duty member of the U.S. military. She is also known as a strong proponent of solar energy as well as for her work to secure the Mexico–United States border.
Committee assignments Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee on Readiness Committee on Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (Ranking Member) Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation
Attempted assassination