Gabrielle Giffords stumps for Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania as campaign for running mate takes shape

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was grievously wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district, took to the campaign trail Thursday for Vice President Kamala Harris, as Harris’ nascent presidential campaign gets off the ground and a parallel campaign to be Harris’ running mate takes shape.

Giffords, speaking at the Salt & Light church in swing-state Pennsylvania, met with community activists in a predominantly Black section of Philadelphia hit by gun violence recently, including one over the weekend in which three people were killed and at least six others were wounded.

The event had long been planned, Giffords aides said, well before Giffords’ husband, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro entered the conversation to be Harris’ running mate, now that President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid and endorsed Harris.

Giffords spoke briefly about her long recovery from the shooting in 2011, which killed six people during a meeting with constituents at a Tucson grocery store. Harris’ other surrogates, including Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton, framed the November presidential contest as a choice between Harris, who would sign a ban on assault weapons, and more gun violence under Republican Donald Trump, who gun-rights groups back.

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