Sept 22 (Reuters) - Former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, 94, has been hospitalized since last week due to low blood pressure, his spokeswoman said on Friday.
The former Senate majority leader was admitted to the Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on Sept. 13, said his spokeswoman, Marion Watkins.
“After a routine check-up it was determined that he had low blood pressure which they’re correcting with medication,” Watkins said. “Right now they hope to release him within a matter of days.”
Watkins added that medical staff were hopeful for his recovery and that Dole, who is a special counsel at the Alston & Bird law firm in Washington, appreciated all the warm wishes he had received.
“Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes,” Dole said on Twitter early on Friday, responding to a tweet from his wife Elizabeth Dole’s foundation. “I hope to be home sipping a cosmo in a few days.”
His wife had tweeted from the Dole Foundation account saying she was “sorry to miss #InvictusGames2017,” a sports event that begins on Saturday in Toronto for wounded, injured or sick armed services personnel and other veterans.
Dole, a decorated World War Two combat veteran, was seriously injured during the war.
“I’m with my husband, @SenatorDole, at the hospital. Please pray for his speedy recovery,” she wrote online.
After serving in the Kansas legislature, Dole was elected to the U.S House of Representatives in 1960 and then the Senate in 1968, where he was re-elected four times.
Dole twice served as Senate Republican leader and earned a reputation as an effective legislator who was well liked among Democrats as well as Republicans for his ability to build coalitions.
Dole was also part of four unsuccessful presidential campaigns. In 1976, he was President Gerald Ford’s vice presidential choice, but that ticket lost to Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale.
Dole ran for president in 1980 but lost the Republican nomination to Ronald Reagan and eight years later Republicans chose George H.W. Bush over him. Dole won the Republican nomination in 1996 but was defeated by incumbent Democrat Bill Clinton.
(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Tom Brown)