After she voted for President Obama’s health-care-reform bill last year, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords became seriously concerned about the barrage of death threats against her. Her 8th Congressional District in Arizona, which shares a 114-mile border with Mexico, is “one of the most emotionally and politically polarized in the nation,” said Adam Nagourney in The New York Times, with illegal immigration, budget deficits, and health-care reform as hot-button issues. In March, after she voted for the Democrats’ health-care bill, the door to her Tucson headquarters was smashed. “She was very seriously concerned about it,” said Thomas Warne, a friend and fund-raiser. Giffords’ staff began notifying police whenever she planned to appear in public. Then came a “brutal” re-election campaign in which she was targeted by the Tea Party, and her Republican opponent ran newspaper ads inviting voters to shoot an M16 with him.
Giffords, 40, is known to friends and constituents as a stand-up politician with a sunny personality and an impressive biography, said Catherine Reagor in The Arizona Republic. Before becoming Arizona’s first Jewish congresswoman, Giffords studied at Scripps College and Cornell, won a Fulbright Scholarship to Mexico, and became the state’s youngest state senator at age 32. A third-generation Arizonan, she’s a proud supporter of the right to bear arms and owns her own Glock. She’s frequently seen around town riding her motorcycle without a helmet. Her “combination of personality and pugnacity” has made Giffords “a rising star” in the Democratic Party, said Paul Kane in The Washington Post. In 2007, she married Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, a NASA astronaut. The two first met in China as part of a U.S. trade mission, and their relationship has been filled with travel ever since. Kelly is based in Houston, while Giffords shuttles between Tucson and Washington.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
What is Linda Yaccarino's legacy? And what's next for X?Today's Big Question An 'uncertain future' in the age of TikTok
-
The Pam Bondi and Dan Bongino schism threatens Trump's DOJIn the Spotlight Two MAGA partisans find themselves on either end of a growing scandal over Jeffrey Epstein and his ties to White House officials
-
8 ways Trump's bill will change your taxesThe Explainer The 'big beautiful bill' was recently signed into law. Here's what it might mean for your wallet.
-
Obamacare crosses its first hurdlefeature The first open enrollment period of the Affordable Care Act came to an end amid a last-minute sign-up surge that pushed participation beyond 7.1 million.
-
Obamacare’s new troubles
feature Once again, the administration announced delays in deadlines set in the Affordable Care Act.
-
Delaying the Obamacare business mandate—again
feature The White House announced another delay to the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate.
-
Obamacare’s jobs effect
feature A Congressional Budget Office report says the Affordable Care Act will shrink the U.S. workforce by the equivalent of 2 million full-time jobs in 2017.
-
Obamacare’s youth shortfall
feature Only about a quarter of new enrollees in the Affordable Care Act’s federal and state marketplaces are under 35.
-
The White House’s ‘long game’ on Obamacare
feature The Obama administration announced that it had signed up 2.1 million people in private health plans and 4.4 million in Medicaid by the Jan. 1 deadline.
-
The relaunch of Obamacare
feature President Obama relaunched his signature health-care law, declaring that the troubled enrollment website was largely fixed.
-
More trouble for Obamacare
feature The HealthCare.gov site may not be fully fixed by a self-imposed Nov. 30 deadline.