GOP candidate Kwasman reveals he has cancer

A Republican candidate for Congress in rural Arizona will announce Thursday that he has cancer and was diagnosed a year ago.

Adam Kwasman, a candidate in the 1st District, says he has a slow-growing blood cancer that was caught early, has presented no symptoms and will likely require no treatment for at least a decade. The cancer is called chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Kwasman, 31, said he learned he had cancer last year, just before launching his campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. He said he did not tell the public because it has not affected him.

"I have cancer but I'm not sick," Kwasman said in an interview with The Arizona Republic. "I still go to the gym three times a week."

Kwasman said he decided to disclose his illness two weeks before the Aug. 26 primary election, and as early voting is ongoing, because rumors had spread that he was sick.

"The story was already getting out there," he said, challenging speculation that he chose a politically opportune time to generate goodwill. "This is not about politics. ... I don't understand why telling people I have cancer is good publicity."

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.

The race has drawn attention for its antics:

• Kwasman was ridiculed nationally for mistaking a bus of YMCA campers for undocumented child migrants being transported by immigration officials.

• Kiehne has made a string of gaffes, including most recently joking about threatening to shoot a game warden when he was young.

• Tobin downplayed the influence of the "tea party" on the same night a tea party candidate in a stunning upset toppled House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Virginia. Tobin this week began re-releasing endorsements he earned months ago.

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.

People with the cancer are typically diagnosed in their 60s or 70s and often go years without symptoms and the need for treatment, he said.

About 4,600 people die nationwide each year from chronic lymphocytic leukemia, according to the American Cancer Society website. In younger patients, if symptoms worsen, a stem-cell transplant can cure the cancer, Abbas said.

Kwasman said he will not drop out of the race, comparing his condition to diabetes. He said he has quarterly blood tests with his oncologist, Dr. Daniel Persky at the University of Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson.

Persky confirmed to The Republic that he is monitoring Kwasman's condition. "He is in excellent health, and I do not anticipate this diagnosis to affect him in the foreseeable future," Persky said in an e-mail.

Kwasman said he was diagnosed after visiting the doctor for fatigue. Tests showed the cause of his fatigue was a common thyroid condition, but the test also uncovered the cancer, he said.

Kwasman noticed the fatigue after the 2013 fight at the state Capitol over expanding Medicaid, he said. Kwasman opposed Gov. Jan Brewer's push to provide health care to thousands of low-income Arizonans.

The issue has been a cornerstone of Kwasman's campaign. He has criticized Tobin for supporting the Medicaid expansion. Tobin sought to craft an alternative to Brewer's plan.

Tobin argues that he opposed Medicaid expansion. He and other conservative lawmakers offered more than 50 amendments and made hours of speeches in an effort to kill Brewer's budget that included the expansion. Ultimately, as leader of the state House, Tobin allowed lawmakers to vote on the bill. He voted against it, but it passed both chambers with a bipartisan coalition and was signed by the governor.

Kwasman said that with his cancer, he has a personal reason to oppose Medicaid expansion and other parts of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

Kwasman said he worries that under the health-care law, he could lose access to quality doctors and have his care rationed. Supporters of the law dispute those concerns.

But Kwasman does support the part of Obama's health-care law that bans discrimination based on a pre-existing condition, which he now has. He said Republicans should keep that provision if they replace the law.

"All our prayers and best hopes for the Kwasman family," Tobin said in a statement. "We sincerely wish Adam our very best."

Other Arizona politicians have hesitated to disclose a cancer diagnosis but none for as long as a year.

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.