PHILADELPHIA — 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.
''We are overwhelmed with violence all across America from rural Pennsylvania to inner city neighborhoods like where we are today," McClinton said. "We as voters can make a decision on having a more violent United States or safer communities in every part of America.''
McClinton — a Shapiro ally in the Pennsylvania statehouse who has rooted on social media for him to join Harris' ticket — and Giffords batted away questions about the potential that Kelly or Shapiro could be Harris' pick.
Asked whether she was thinking about becoming the second lady, Giffords said, ''later, later.'' For her part, McClinton said ''I'm not making those decisions,'' but then put in a plug for Shapiro as a "people's champion when it comes to issues around public safety" while calling Kelly someone who ''we all hold in high regard.''
Harris is beginning to vet about a dozen people for the vice presidential nomination, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential process.
