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2008 Elections : NOW PACs Profile
Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz., 8th District)
A Young Legislator on the Rise
NOW PAC is pleased once again to endorse Gabrielle Giffords for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona's 8th Congressional District. Since Giffords' election to Congress in 2006, she has been appointed to the House Committee on Armed Services, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the House Committee on Science and Technology.
During her first months in office, Giffords voted to support issues important to NOW members, including increased funding for stem cell research, raising the minimum wage, and supporting ethics reform. Giffords also voted to repeal subsidies to big oil companies and invest the savings in renewable energy and has been on the forefront of initiatives to prohibit employment discrimination, in particular discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation.
At 32, Giffords was the youngest women ever elected to the Arizona State Senate. She is a feminist with a solid track record as an advocate for people's needs and rights on all fronts.
Arizona-born Giffords entered state politics just a few years after completing her master's degree in regional planning at Cornell University. Between graduate school and election to the State House, Giffords worked briefly in New York City before returning to her hometown of Tucson to take over her family's business, El Campo Tire Service Centers.
As we said in 2006, Giffords is one of those rare candidates who has no qualms about declaring her commitment to achieving equal rights: "Nothing in the Constitution," she writes, "allows Congress or any other body of government to deny basic human rights based on race, gender or sexual orientation."
For her accomplishments and feminist advocacy, the Tucson NOW chapter awarded Giffords their Woman of Courage award in August 2006.
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