Gabby Giffords is a growing presence on the 2024 political landscape. Here's what to know

When Alabama’s Supreme Court effectively ruled that frozen embryos are considered children for civil liability earlier this year, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle "Gabby" Giffords wrote an essay in the ensuing debate over in-vitro fertilization.

When former President Donald Trump was the target of an attempted assassination, Giffords, D-Ariz., who was shot in the head in 2011, quickly condemned the matter on social media: “Political violence is terrifying. I know.”

And after Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance’s 2021 comments disparaging Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies” resurfaced last week, Giffords called attacks on those without children “disgraceful.”

Giffords seems to be asserting herself more than she has in the 13 years since survived a near-fatal gunshot wound to the head in an attack near Tucson that killed six people and wounded 12 others.

She has already spent 120 days of the year’s 210 days on the road, and there are no plans to stop.

“The intensity and the activity and the voice that you see is meant to match the moment,” said Emma Brown, the executive director of Giffords, the gun-safety organization that bears her name. “Gabby is someone who has always cared very deeply about policy.”

It comes as her husband, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, is now under consideration as the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Giffords, the organization, announced last week it is committing $15 million in ads supporting Democratic candidates and Harris’ candidacy in swing states, further amplifying Giffords’ chief cause, if not her husband’s prospects of joining the ticket.

“She’s been doing different kinds of campaigns, I would call it, for several years now,” said former U.S. Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz. He was a Giffords staffer wounded alongside her in 2011 and, later, at her urging, won her vacant House seat in a special election.

“She’s still recovering on her speaking, but she’s gotten a lot better,” he said.

In 2020, for example, she gave a 90-second speech for the Democratic National Convention in which she talked about recovery from “the darkest of days.”

“Confronted by despair, I summoned hope,” she said. “Confronted by paralysis and aphasia, I responded with grit and determination.”

Last week, Giffords appeared in Philadelphia on behalf of the Harris campaign at an event her aides told reporters had been planned before the shakeup to the Democratic ticket last weekend.

Giffords still moves with a limp and words can be hard, but she stood at a podium, however briefly, to remind Pennsylvania voters to embrace these “challenging times.”

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“We are up for the challenge. My own recovery has taken years,” she said in a strong voice.

“Many, many, many people helped me along the way, and I learned so much. I learned (if) people care for each other and work together, progress is possible, a better world is possible. But change doesn’t happen overnight, and we can’t do it alone. Join me, let’s move ahead together.”

She deflected reporters’ questions about Kelly possibly as a vice presidential candidate. “Later, later,” she told the Associated Press.

Giffords has made recent campaign stops for congressional campaigns in Pittsburgh, Detroit and Grand Rapids, Mich., as well.

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who is running for the Senate, said in a written statement that Giffords is an inspiration.

“We love it when Gabby comes up to speak to Michiganders. Whether it’s for a policy rally on the steps of the State Capitol or a pep talk for volunteers in a small campaign office, voters up here are inspired by her story,” Slotkin said.

Giffords still needs physical and speech therapy, and Brown said on top of her work schedule just getting out of bed can seem like a challenge for Giffords.

“She works a lot harder than most people realize,” Brown said. “She keeps up a blistering schedule. … And at the same time she works extremely hard at recovering from being shot in the head 13 years ago. It’s a daily effort.”

Even so, Giffords has reached a point where public speaking is more manageable and what she wants to do anyway, Brown said.

She was a helpful, if limited, surrogate for Kelly during his 2020 and 2022 campaigns, for example.

“Mark focuses on facts, not politics,” she said during a one-minute speech in November 2022 in Phoenix. “Mark is loyal and caring. Mark has already served our country in so many ways. We need him in the Senate.”

Beyond her appearances, Giffords’ name has crept into discussions outside just gun laws.

In June, Giffords and Kelly wrote in People magazine about how Giffords had an IVF appointment scheduled for two days after she was shot. The shooting ended their hopes for children together. They tied that experience back to current events.

“Make no mistake: The freedom to start a family with IVF is under threat,” they wrote. “Our dream of having a child together was taken away by a gunman. The dreams of Americans to have a child together could be taken away by politicians.”

Her organization, meanwhile, continues to raise its profile pressing for what it views as common-sense gun law changes.

In an 8-1 ruling in June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal law that bars those with domestic violence restraining orders from possessing a gun. The Giffords organization was among several groups that urged the justices to uphold the ban.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gabby Giffords a growing presence in 2024 politics