GOP candidate contracts illness

Tea Party firebrand Allen West, a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of Texas, was hospitalized with COVID-19 on Sunday but said he’s “doing great.”

“No complaints. I’m just relaxing,” West told the Associated Press during a phone interview from a hospital in the Dallas suburb of Plano.

West and his wife, Angela West, were diagnosed with the virus after attending a “packed house” fundraising event in Seabrook, Texas, last week. He said Saturday that he was “suspending in-person events until receiving an all-clear indication.”

Both Wests received antibody treatments and Angela, who was vaccinated against the virus, was released to go home, Allen West said on Twitter. He said he has not gotten a coronavirus vaccination and that doctors were worried Saturday about the lowered level of oxygen saturation in his blood.