PHOENIX – Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, one of Arizona’s most high-profile Democrats, always has seemed an unlikely voter choice in the state’s conservative-leaning 8th Congressional District.
But the Democrat from Tucson has managed to win election three times by holding centrist positions, reaching out to constituents and bucking her party’s position on many issues as a key member of the “Blue Dog Coalition” Democrats.
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She has been tough on border security, but supports comprehensive immigration reform.
She voted for President Obama’s stimulus and health care reforms, but pushed the administration to put armed National Guard troops on Arizona’s border with Mexico to stop drug and human smuggling.
In the wake of her November re-election win — where she fended off a strong tea party challenger — Giffords has been mentioned as a possible Democratic nominee in 2012 for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Jon Kyl or for the governor’s office in 2014. Kyl has not said whether he’ll run again.
“When you’re talking about a future gubernatorial race or anything else, when you’ve run three times in a Republican district in a state that still has a narrow Republican majority, she goes to the top of the list,” said Don Bivens, state Democratic Party chairman.
Giffords, 40, a one-time Republican, became a Democrat in 2000 and won election to the Arizona House, where she served one term. In 2002, she became the youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona Senate and was re-elected in 2004, then stepped down in 2006 to try for the seat of retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe.
Known as “Gabby,” she won an easy victory by taking conservative positions for a Democrat in the district that had elected the moderate Kolbe 11 times. She was easily re-elected in 2008.
She maintained her popularity in her district – anchored by Tucson and swinging south toward conservative retirement communities like Green Valley and east to even more conservative Cochise County – by scheduling regular outreach meetings to meet constituents one-on-one. It was at just such a meeting in Tucson where she was shot Saturday.
Giffords married astronaut Mark E. Kelly in 2007. The couple has no children.
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