PHOENIX -- Democrat Ron Barber has won a special House election in southern Arizona to finish the term of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Giffords resigned a year after she was shot in the head while meeting with constituents at a Tucson shopping center.
Barber defeated Republican Jesse Kelly, a former Marine who narrowly lost a House race to Giffords in 2010.
The 66-year-old Barber was seriously injured in the same rampage in which Giffords was shot. Six others were killed.
Holding onto the seat has been a priority for Democrats as they seek to regain control of the House in November.
Republicans tried to make the race a referendum on President Barack Obama, a strategy they'll continue to follow in other swing districts in this fall's congressional elections.
Republicans, riding high after a decisive victory in Wisconsin's gubernatorial election last Tuesday, set their sights on Arizona. A victory would give party leaders a chance to claim momentum five months before November and fine-tune their plan to link Democratic candidates to Obama, the incumbent at the top of the ticket.
Giffords, 42, resigned in January to concentrate on her recovery from a gunshot wound to her head. Giffords and Barber were injured in the January 2011 shooting rampage outside a Tucson grocery store that killed six people, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge. Giffords largely has shunned public appearances in the race, but in the closing days was stepping out to help Barber.
Outside groups have spent more than $2 million on the race.
Barber, 66, had a sizable fundraising lead in late May, but spending from conservative groups helped reduce the Democratic financial edge.
The Arizona 8th is a rare district that is competitive virtually every election. Giffords defeated Kelly by about 4,000 votes in 2010 when the election focused on immigration and when tea partyers rallied to the tough-talking former Marine. Now, the economy and jobs are voters' top concerns.
Kelly, 30, spent the campaign arguing that Barber and Obama are out of touch with people in the district, where Republicans have a 26,000-person edge over Democrats in voter registration. He has called for lower taxes and more energy production as ways to improve the economy. And he has said he would roll back federal regulations and environmental protections in an effort to boost oil and gas drilling.
h/t: Huffington Post
