Democrat Gabby Giffords Endorses Republican Sen. Mark Kirk (UPDATED)

Incumbent Republican Sen. Mark Kirk received an endorsement from across the aisle Monday. Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona, a Democrat, backed Kirk, who is up for re-election in November.

Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, put their support behind Kirk because of his pro-gun control votes in the U.S. Senate. The couple made their endorsement for Kirk and other senators up for re-election as part of an editorial for their gun control legislation group, Americans for Responsible Solutions, posted on CNN's website.

"In the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook, Republican Sens. Pat Toomey and Mark Kirk broke from the gun lobby and supported a [2013] bill to help prevent felons, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill from obtaining firearms at gun shows and online," the editorial stated. "This week, they are earning our organization's endorsement."

Giffords was severely hurt when she was shot in the head during a January 2011 mass shooting in Arizona. Needing years of physical and speech therapy to recuperate from the shooting, she stepped down from her congressional seat in January of 2012.

RELATED: Read Barack Obama's Thank You Note to Mark Kirk for Meeting With Supreme Court Nominee

This is the second time year Kirk, who is facing a tough re-election campaign against U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-10th District), has received praise from Democrats for breaking with his party line. While he didn't endorse Kirk's senatorial run, President Barack Obama did send the senator a thank you note for meeting with the president's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, in March. Republican leaders in the senate have adamantly said they will not hold nomination hearings for Obama's choice to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia's seat on the high court.

UPDATED (6:17 p.m. Monday, Aug. 22): After the endorsement was posted, Duckworth's deputy campaign manager, Matt McGrath, released the following statement:

“Mark Kirk is a reliable vote for [Republican Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell, who has made it absolutely clear that any bill to address the scourge of gun violence is DOA in the Senate he controls, so Kirk’s claim to be a leader on the issue isn’t just hollow, it’s flat-out wrong. Make no mistake, if the voters of Illinois choose to send Tammy Duckworth to the Senate, she will work tirelessly to pass commonsense solutions to address gun violence, and unlike Kirk, she’ll work to persuade her colleagues to join her.”

Giffords' support also came on the same day Kirk was making headlines for telling Springfield's The State Journal-Register editorial board earlier this month that Obama "was acting like the drug dealer in chief" when his administration gave Iran $400 million in cash for the release of American prisoners in January. The money was repayment from a decades-old Iranian account and involved a prisoner exchange, but the Obama administration denies it was paying a ransom, according to The Associated Press.

PHOTO: Gabby Giffords (Image via Gage Skidmore | Wikimedia Commons); Mark Kirk (Image via U.S. Senate)

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