u/No-Flight-4214

As a Democrat in a state that leaned Republican, Giffords sometimes faced fierce political opposition. In 2010, after she voted for the health care bill that was later enacted as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, her office in Tucson was vandalized. Later that year she endured an aggressive challenge to her seat from Republican candidate Jesse Kelly, who was backed by Tea Party supporters; Giffords won reelection by only a slim margin.

On January 8, 2011, while hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” meeting with constituents in the parking lot of a supermarket in Tucson, Giffords was shot in the head by Jared Lee Loughner, a constituent she had met at a similar event several years earlier.

Giffords survived the attack, though six people, including a nine-year-old girl, were killed and 12 others were injured.