TUCSON — Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward is facing criticism after saying this about Arizona Democratic Senate candidate, Mark Kelly, in a recent fundraising email: “Support the Republican Party of Arizona today and, together, we’ll stop gun-grabber Mark Kelly dead in his tracks.”

Mary Reed’s daughter, Emma, was Gabby Giffords’ page. Now 26, the teenager was with her mom on January 8th at Safeway, waiting to take a picture with the congresswoman when the mass shooting began.

Mary was shot three times protecting her daughter.

“I just turned into the mom mode,” Reed said. “And I covered her with my body as Mr. Loughner went down the line shooting people, he stood behind me and tried to shoot her through my arm and I turned around and looked him in the eye and he lowered his gun and shot me in the back a third time.”

Reed is appalled by Ward’s choice of words.

“This type of rhetoric is beneath the GOP here in Arizona,” she said. “After January 8th, after seeing all the targets on Gabby’s district and all of the rhetoric around that, Kelli should have been more sensitive.”

Kelly’s Senate campaign spokesman, Jacob Peters, released this statement:

After the initial story broke, Dr. Ward tweeted:

Utterly ridiculous! I don’t wish harm on Mr. Kelly. We disagree politically on the Constitution and the #2a, and I’m well aware of the harm his policies would cause should he ever be elected. Dishonest stories like this are dangerous and irresponsible! https://t.co/8wfU8QQtSO — Dr. Kelli Ward ?? (@kelliwardaz) September 6, 2019

On Sunday Pima County GOP Chair David Eppihimer said in a statement: “Of course we do not condemn her remarks. As a western state, those of us here have been using the phrase: “stop whomever dead in their tracks” since the 1800s. This is classic fake news.”

Mary Reed believes when you are a survivor, safety becomes paramount.

“It comes across in a more violent way when you have seen such violence and survived,” Reed said. “And, Mark, he sat with his wife day after day after she healed. Kelli Ward, please apologize those are very hurtful, dangerous words.”