Gabrielle Giffords Biography

Gabrielle Giffords is the Arizona Congresswoman who was shot in the head by an attacker in Tucson on 8 January 2011. She survived the shooting, though six others around her were killed. Gabrielle Giffords was raised in Tucson and graduated from Scripps College in California in 1993, then earned a Master of Regional Planning degree (M.R.P.) from Cornell University in 1996. Moving back to Arizona, she ran the family business, El Campo Tire Warehouses, and then was a member of the state House of Representatives from 2001-03 and of the state Senate from 2003-05. She was elected as a U.S. Representative from Arizona’s 8th District in 2006, then reelected in 2008 and 2010. A Democrat, she “worked on issues such as immigration reform, embryonic stem-cell research, alternative energy sources and a higher minimum wage,” according to a 2011 report by Reuters. She was shot by a 22-year-old man named Jared Loughner while at an outdoor meet-and-greet with constituents in Tucson on 8 January 2011. Giffords was shot once through the head and critically wounded, but was rushed to the hospital and survived surgery. On 21 January 2011 she was moved to a clinic in Houston, Texas, where she spent the next several months in rehabilitation. Though still not back to full speed, she returned to Congress in August of 2011 to cast a vote on the debt ceiling.  She resigned her seat on 25 January 2012, saying that she would focus on recovering from the shooting.