RALEIGH, (AP) — A North Carolina House member has cancer and is withdrawing from the race for a Senate seat because of it.

 

Rep. Jim Fulghum of Raleigh wrote the state and Wake County election boards Thursday to pull out of the election for the 15th Senate District seat, citing ongoing treatment for cancer.

 

The 70-year-old Fulghum is a retired neurosurgeon elected to the House in 2012. He decided this year to try to make the switch to Senate when Sen. Neal Hunt chose not to run again. He won the Republican primary and was to face Democrat Tom Bradshaw in the fall.

 

Republicans in the northern Wake County Senate district will have to choose a replacement nominee.

 

Fulghum remains in his House seat but was absent from the chamber this week.