Antenori told The Daily Caller that he believes the Democratic Party is intentionally delaying Giffords’ announcement in order to hamstring any GOP challengers.

“I do believe there’s a political strategy in play here by the Democrats to exploit if they can as long as possible the situation,” said Antenori, “to keep Republicans from actively beginning to campaign.”

“I believe that the constituents that she represents understand the situation,” he added. “But eventually they’re going to want to know what the story is — is she going to run or not run, is she going to represent the district or not?”…

Antenori said that he has received an outpouring of positive reactions from Arizonans to his likely candidacy. Although Giffords supporters occasionally hassle him, Antenori said most people respond with some variation of, “hey look, we’ve got a country to run, we’re facing a lot of important decisions, and we need someone up there to fight for us.”