Candidate for Congress to continue campaign after car crash

[July 07, 2018]    By Diana Kruzman
 
 (Reuters) - South Carolina Republican congressional candidate Katie Arrington was released from the hospital on Friday, two weeks after she broke her back and several ribs in a car crash, and vowed to continue her campaign after some rest.

A headshot of Katie Arrington is seen in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on June 23, 2018. Handout via REUTERS

"The campaign hasn't stopped for me," Arrington said at a news conference on Friday at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where she was being treated. "This is hard work, perseverance to get to Washington, to get to represent this community, and it hasn't stopped."

The accident occurred in Charleston County on June 22 when a vehicle driving in the wrong direction hit a car carrying the 47-year-old candidate. The other vehicle's driver was killed, and the driver of Arrington's car – her friend Jacqueline Goff, 59 – was seriously injured. [nL1N1TP0C5]

Arrington, a first-term member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, will vie for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives against Democrat Joe Cunningham in November. She defeated Republican incumbent U.S. Representative Mark Sanford in a primary contest on June 12.

During her primary campaign, Arrington frequently praised Republican President Donald Trump, who endorsed her on Twitter after calling Sanford "very unhelpful" and "nothing but trouble."

"She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. VOTE Katie!" Trump wrote on Twitter during the primary.

Republican U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina will act as a surrogate for Arrington at some campaign events, and other members of Congress have offered to do the same, according to Arrington's campaign manager, Michael Mulé.

Doctors on Friday said Arrington was recovering well, but that she still needed to heal internally and would have to "take it easy" for at least a month. Arrington, who attended the news conference in a wheelchair, said she was in a great deal of pain but was glad her injuries were not worse.

"There is no facial trauma, no neurological damage and there is no reason why other than God," Arrington said.

(Reporting by Diana Kruzman; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Jonathan Oatis)

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