Gun-control advocate Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who was wounded in a shooting eight years ago, plans to endorse Democrat John Hickenlooper in Colorado’s U.S. Senate primary on Monday at an Aurora rally, her nonprofit organization said.

“Gabby and I worked together to take on the NRA and pass gun safety legislation here, and I’m running to bring that same drive to the United States Senate and finally pass common-sense gun safety legislation like universal background checks,” Hickenlooper, a former two-term governor, told Colorado Politics in a statement.

“All Americans deserve to live without fear of gun violence in our schools, theaters or malls.”

Giffords and Hickenlooper will headline a rally and panel discussion at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Heritage Christian Center, 14401 E. Exposition Ave., in Aurora. Doors open at 4:30 p.m., his campaign said.

Giffords was one of 19 people shot in 2011 at a constituent-outreach event outside a grocery store in Tucson in an attack that left six dead. She founded the nonprofit Giffords: Courage to Fight Gun Violence along with her husband, combat veteran and retired astronaut Capt. Mark Kelly, who is challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Martha McSally in Arizona.

In an email to supporters, Hickenlooper called the toll of gun violence “a deeply personal issue for me” and noted that he signed landmark state legislation to ban high-capacity magazines and require background checks for firearms purchases following the 2012 Aurora theater shooting.

Two Democratic state senators lost their seats in recalls sparked by the controversial 2013 legislation, and a third stepped down in the face of a threatened recall.

“He was there when it counted,” Peter Ambler, executive director of Giffords, told the Aurora Sentinel, referring to Hickenlooper. “He was the first purple state governor in the country to advance common-sense, safer gun laws through the legislature. It might seem easy now, but it was tough then, and it took a lot of political courage.”

Hickenlooper is one of nine Democrats running in a primary for the seat held by Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner. Giffords’ political group spent close to $750,000 last summer on ads calling on Gardner to support a measure to require background checks on certain gun purchases. 

Monday’s rally will be Giffords’ fourth visit to Aurora in recent years. In 2018, she met with voters to support U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, who unseated Republican Mike Coffman, and last fall endorsed Omar Montgomery, who lost an Aurora mayoral bid to Coffman in November. Giffords also rallied for “sensible” gun control legislation at an August appearance in Aurora.