Gabrielle Giffords

Gabrielle Giffords assumed office in January 2007, representing Arizona's 8th District in the United States House of Representatives until January 2012. Giffords is the third woman elected from Arizona to serve in the United States Congress.

Giffords was born June 8, 1970, in Tucson, Arizona. In 1993, she completed her B.A. in sociology and Latin American history at Scripps College in California. From 1993 to 1994, she studied in Chihuahua, Mexico, as a Fulbright Scholar. After returning to the United States, Gifford studied at Cornell University, completing her master's degree in regional planning in 1996, with a focus on Mexico-United States relations.

Prior to serving as a United States Representative, Gifford took over her family's tire and automotive business, serving as president and CEO of El Campo Tire, Inc. From 2001–2003, she served in the Arizona House of Representatives; and from 2003–2005, she served in the Arizona State Senate. Giffords is the youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona State Senate and Arizona's first Jewish congresswoman.

On January 8, 2011, Giffords was seriously injured in an assassination attempt at her first "Congress on Your Corner" meeting of 2011. The shooting injured thirteen people and killed six, including a 9-year-old girl, an aide to Giffords and United States District Judge John Roll. She stepped down from Congress in January 2012.

For information on Gifford's policy subject areas, committee appointments and sponsored/co-sponsored legislation during her time in the U.S. House of Representatives, please visit her profile on https://www.congress.gov.

Sources:

Ballotpedia (n.d.). “Gabrielle Giffords” Ballotpedia. Retrieved November 7, 2022. https://ballotpedia.org/Gabrielle_Giffords