Gabrielle Dee Giffords is an American retired 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, she was the third woman in Arizona’s history to be elected to the U.S. Congress. 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 United States senator from Arizona.
On October 13, 2022, she was named the Grand Marshal of the 2023 Rose Parade and will preside over the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl game.
Giffords married U.S. Navy captain and NASA astronaut Mark Kelly on November 10, 2007. Kelly was the Space Shuttle’s pilot on the STS-108 and STS-121 missions, was the commander of STS-124 and STS-134, and became a U.S. Senator for Arizona in 2020.
Mark Edward Kelly is an American retired astronaut, U.S. Navy captain, businessman, and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Arizona since 2020.
A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected in the special election following the death of Senator John McCain, defeating incumbent Republican Martha McSally.
Kelly flew combat missions during the Gulf War as a naval aviator before being selected as a NASA Space Shuttle pilot in 1996. Kelly announced his candidacy for Arizona’s Class 3 U.S. Senate seat in the 2020 special election on February 12, 2019.