Gabrielle Dee Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is an American politician and gun control advocate who served as a member of the United States House of Rep...
Gabrielle Dee Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is an American politician and gun control advocate who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Arizona's 8th congressional district from January 2007 until January 2012, when she resigned due to a severe brain injury suffered during an assassination attempt. A member of the Democratic Party, Giffords was the third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to the U.S. Congress.
Born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Giffords graduated from Scripps College and Cornell University. After initially moving to New York City, where she worked in regional economic development for Price Waterhouse, Giffords returned to Arizona to work as the CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, a family business started by her grandfather. She served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2001 until 2003 and the Arizona Senate from 2003 until 2005 when she was elected to the U.S. House. Giffords had just begun her third term in January 2011 when she was shot in the head in an assassination attempt and mass shooting just outside of Tucson during an event with constituents. Giffords has since recovered much of her ability to walk, speak, read, and write. She was greeted by a standing ovation upon her return to the House floor in August 2011. She attended President Obama's State of the Union address on January 24, and appeared on the floor of the House on January 25, 2012, where she formally submitted her resignation to a standing ovation and accolades from her colleagues and the leadership of the House.
Though a moderate on the issue during her time in Congress, Giffords has since become an ardent advocate for gun control. In January 2013, she and her husband launched Americans for Responsible Solutions, a non-profit organization and Super-PAC which later joined with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence to become Giffords. She is married to former Space Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly, the junior Senator from Arizona.
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Tammy Duckworth
Ladda Tammy Duckworth (born March 12, 1968) is an American politician and retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel serving as the junior United...
Ladda Tammy Duckworth (born March 12, 1968) is an American politician and retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel serving as the junior United States Senator from Illinois since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she represented Illinois's 8th district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2017.
Duckworth was educated at the University of Hawaii and George Washington University. A combat veteran of the Iraq War, she served as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot. In 2004, after her helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents, she suffered severe combat wounds, which caused her to lose both of her legs and some mobility in her right arm. She was the first female double amputee from the war. Despite her grievous injuries, she sought and obtained a medical waiver that allowed her to continue serving in the Illinois Army National Guard until she retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2014.
Duckworth ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2006, then served as Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs from 2006 to 2009 and as Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs from 2009 to 2011. In 2012, Duckworth was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she served two terms. Duckworth was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016, defeating Republican incumbent Mark Kirk. She is the first Thai American woman elected to Congress, the first person born in Thailand elected to Congress, the first woman with a disability elected to Congress, the first female double amputee in the Senate, and the first senator to give birth while in office. Duckworth is the second of three Asian American women to serve in the U.S. Senate, after Mazie Hirono, and before Kamala Harris.
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