Carly Fiorina resumes her campaign, telling supporters: ‘I feel great’

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After a two-day absence from the campaign trail due to an infection, Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina on Thursday was greeted by about 80 cheering supporters chanting ‘Back to Win’ at an event outside of Sacramento.

‘I feel great, and it’s great to be back on the campaign trail,’ said Fiorina, who showed no sign of her illness as she spoke to reporters for nearly 20 minutes.

The former Hewlett-Packard chief executive was admitted to the hospital early Tuesday morning and stayed overnight after coming down with an infection that her campaign said was related to reconstructive surgery earlier this summer. Fiorina was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2009 and treated with chemotherapy, radiation and a double mastectomy. She was given a clean bill of health last fall.

‘Nothing about that diagnosis has changed,’ she told reporters Thursday. ‘I am completely cancer-free, and I feel fantastic.’

Fiorina did not specify what kind of infection she had, but said she did not have any health concerns in the coming days.

‘It’s fairly common, unfortunately, for women who have been through the kind of breast cancer and reconstructive surgery that I went through to sometimes get infections, and they need to be treated aggressively and quickly, and this one was,’ she said.

She quickly turned back to the standard elements of her stump speech: criticizing Sen. Barbara Boxer’s record on taxes, job creation and the $814-billion federal stimulus package.

On her arrival at the event at an office park near the former McClellan Air Force Base, she exchanged hugs or handshakes with nearly every one of her admirers. ‘You touch me,’ she told them, patting her hand on her heart before heading inside for her speech.

‘Five more days, we’ve got to work hard,’ she said.

-- Maeve Reston in McClellan