South Carolina Republican congressional candidate Katie Arrington, who ousted incumbent U.S. Representative Mark Sanford in a primary this month, was seriously injured in a car crash that killed the driver of a second vehicle, her campaign said Saturday.

Arrington, 47, was the passenger in a car driven by a friend Friday night when a vehicle traveling in the wrong direction struck them on Highway 17 in Charleston County as they were going to Hilton Head where Arrington was to receive an award from a state medical organization, her campaign said.

Campaign spokesman Michael Mule said Arrington will stay in the race for Congress.

“She’s determined, if not more than ever, to get back on the trail,” Mule told the Post and Courier newspaper of Charleston.

Tim Scott, a Republican U.S. Senator from South Carolina, told the same newspaper, “There is no doubt she will make a strong recovery.”

Arrington broke her back and several ribs, and sustained injuries that required her to undergo major surgery including the removal of a portion of her small intestine and part of her colon, her campaign said in a statement.

It said a main artery in one of Arrington’s legs collapsed and that she will require additional surgery and will be hospitalized for two weeks.

Local media said the candidate’s friend, Jacqueline Goff, 59, of Mandeville, Louisiana, was in critical condition.
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