WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are hoping that late campaign appearances by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will help push her handpicked successor to victory in a special congressional election in Arizona.
Republicans are trying to make the Arizona House race a referendum on President Barack Obama and his handling of the economy, and they’re running a former Marine who narrowly lost to Giffords two years ago.
That race is just one of the election battles taking place across the nation Tuesday. Virginia, Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina are holding primary elections.
Giffords resigned in January to focus on her recovery from a gunshot wound to her head in a gunman’s shooting spree a year earlier. Six people died and 13 were wounded at a constituent event in Tucson.
