Rebekah L. Sanders of The Arizona Republic reports that two weeks before Election Day, Republican candidate Adam Kwasman reveals he has cancer and has known for a year. He says he has a form of slow-growing blood cancer that was diagnosed a year ago and has presented no symptoms and has not affected his campaign.
He said he did not tell the public because it has not affected him.
Kwasman is competing in a wild GOP primary against Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin and rancher and hotelier Gary Kiehne. The race, in one of the most competitive districts in the country, appears close. The winner of the primary will face U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., in the fall.
Kwasman was ridiculed nationally for mistaking a bus of YMCA campers for undocumented child migrants being transported by immigration officials.
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is the most common form of blood cancer, but Kwasman’s diagnosis at his age is extremely rare, said Dr. Jonathan Abbas, a physician at the Cancer Transplant Institute at The Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare.
In 2012, U.S. Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz., of Tucson, was diagnosed with a malignant tumor on his tongue days after being elected. He waited two weeks to announce it after successful surgery to remove the tumor.
In 2009, former Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs went four months before making public her fight with breast cancer, as she was set to begin chemotherapy that could cause her to lose her hair and force her to miss council meetings.
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