Gabrielle Giffords

Giffords married Mark Kelly on November 10, 2007. She had met him four years earlier, on a trip to China. He is a former ‘Navy’ pilot and ‘NASA’ astronaut.

Kelly and Giffords later founded ‘Americans for Responsible Solutions,’ which advocates gun-violence prevention and gun-owner responsibility.

Giffords was born on June 8, 1970, in Tucson, Arizona, to a Jewish father, Spencer Giffords, and a Christian Scientist mother, Gloria Kay (née Fraser). She was raised in a mixed religious environment but follows Judaism now. Her father looked after their family business, ‘El Campo Tire Warehouses,’ and was a member of the district school board. Her mother was an author and an art restorer.

Giffords has an older sister named Melissa and an older half-brother named Alejandro. Her childhood adventures included summer camping with Melissa across the border, in Mexico. With a liking for horses, she worked in the stable to pay for her riding lessons.

Giffords graduated in 1988 from the ‘University High School’ in Tucson. She was a ‘Girl Scout,’ too. She studied at ‘Scripps College,’ a women’s college in California, and received a BA degree in sociology and Latin American history in 1993. She then earned a ‘William Fulbright Scholarship’ and studied in Chihuahua, Mexico, for a year. In 1996, she got a master’s degree in regional planning from ‘Cornell University,’ Ithaca, New York.

After completing her studies, she worked for six months as an associate at ‘Price Waterhouse’ in New York City. She returned to Tucson to work as the CEO of her family business, ‘El Campo Tire Warehouses.’ In 2000, she sold the company to ‘Goodyear Tire.’

While working in Tucson, Giffords took interest in helping her community. At 18, inspired by ‘Supreme Court’ justice Sandra Day O’Connor, she registered as a ‘Republican.’ However, in 1999, she switched to the ‘Democratic Party.’

In 2001, she was elected to the ‘Arizona House of Representatives.’ She served in this post till 2003. In 2002, she ran for the ‘Arizona Senate’ and won, thereby becoming the youngest woman elected to the ‘Arizona Senate.’ She joined the ‘Senate’ in 2003 and was re-elected in 2004.

While in the legislature office, Giffords worked on issues such as healthcare costs and low educational achievements. Her work on bills concerning mental health earned her the honor of the 2004 ‘Legislature of the Year,’ awarded by the ‘Mental Health Association of Arizona.’ In 2003, she received the ‘Outstanding Legislature Award,’ awarded by the ‘Arizona Family Literacy’ program, for her efforts in improving education and healthcare of her state’s children.

In December 2005, she resigned from the ‘Senate’ to run for the elections for the ‘US House of Representatives.’ The 8th congressional district seat in Arizona was being vacated by Representative Jim Kolbe, and Gifford announced her candidacy for that seat on January 24, 2006. She was endorsed by important ‘Democrats,’ including Bill Clinton. She was nominated by her party after a primary election on September 12, 2006.

On November 7, 2006, she won the elections with 54% of the votes. Her opponent, ‘Republican’ Randy Graf, secured 42% of the votes. She became the first woman of Jewish descent to be elected to the ‘Congress’ from Arizona.

In November 2011, Giffords and Kelly released a memoir, ‘Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope,’ co-written with Jeffrey Zaslow.

Their second book, ‘Enough: Our Fight to Keep America Safe from Gun Violence,’ was published in May 2017.

The ‘US Navy’ combat ship ‘USS Gabrielle Giffords,’ named in her honor, was commissioned into service on June 12, 2017, in Texas. She is the first living woman to have a ‘Navy’ warship named after her. The only other woman was Martha Washington in 1776. She is also the third living woman in the US to have a naval vessel named after her.