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He wasn't just keeping the seat warm. Ron Barber, Gabrielle Giffords' hand-picked successor, officially won the race for her old House seat in Arizona's District 8 on Saturday when the Associated Press finally called it, almost two weeks after election day. Barber won a special election (after a Giffords endorsement) over the summer after the former Congresswoman resigned from her post. Barber would finish out Giffords' term until election day, meaning he'd only be a Congressman for a few months. Barber served as Giffords' district director before that and was also injured in the 2011 shooting that left Giffords battling for her life. Barber's win was a narrow one over challenging Republican Martha McSally, but it doesn't matter how much you win by, as the say. Now he'll have the leisure and comfort of a full two years in Washington working in his old boss's position.

Correction: an earlier version of this post misstated the length of a term in Congress. It originally said four years, when terms in Congress are in fact limited to only two years.

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