It is not clear who will succeed, or even run to succeed, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who resigned last month a year after a gunman shot her in a vicious attack.
But Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., the top recruiter of Democrats across the nation, said on Sunday he had asked her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, to consider running for the seat. Kelly declined.
“I did ask him if he’d consider running,” Israel said in an appearance on C-SPAN’s Newsmakers. Israel said Kelly, who appeared next to first lady Michelle Obama at the State of the Union address last month, told him no because Kelly is still Giffords’ “primary caregiver.”
“There’s no arguing with that,” Israel said.
Kelly, Giffords and the congresswoman’s former aides are all meeting to determine who should run to fill out the rest of her term in a special election, and for a full two-year term this fall, Israel said.
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