Mitch Perry
Bill Nelson is now cancer-free after successful prostate surgery Monday, according to Emily Rogers, the Senator’s deputy press secretary.
Officials representing the 72-year-old Florida legislator announced on Thursday that Nelson had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and that doctors would treat it surgically.
“Bill wants to thank all the people in Florida and elsewhere who sent prayers and well wishes,” his wife Grace said after the operation. “The doctors, nurses and staff caring for him are all just great.”
In the same statement released last week indicating that Nelson would be undergoing surgery today, he also said that he would be running for his fourth six-year term for Senate in 2018.
Although surely not the most important news in Nelson’s world, it does clarify for Democrats looking to run for higher office that there’s one less office to consider. Nelson was first elected to the Senate in 2000, and has easily won re-election in 2006 and 2012, against less-than-robust challengers in Katherine Harris and Connie Mack IV, respectively.
Nelson could be challenged in the 2018 general election by Gov. Rick Scott, who will be term-limited out of office in Tallahassee and has been making noises about running for another office.
