Sen. Tim Johnson to Make First Public Appearance in Home State
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson will face his constituents for the first time since suffering a brain hemorrhage last December, making a long-awaited public appearance in his home state later this month.
Johnson, a Democrat, will appear in Sioux Falls on Aug. 28, his office announced Thursday. He is expected to return to the Senate in September.
A release from Johnson's office said the event will be "a welcome home celebration in which Sen. Johnson will personally thank the people of South Dakota for their support."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
The senator has been recovering at hospitals and in his Fairfax, Va. home since he suffered the hemorrhage. He has been undergoing speech therapy and is expected to use a scooter to get around in the Capitol.
The public has only had glimpses of the senator in posed pictures released by his office.
In a written statement released by his office earlier this month, Johnson said his doctors had cleared him for travel.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
"I know my return has taken longer than some people have liked — count me among them," he said in the statement.
After remaining quiet for many months, Republicans have recently begun to publicly discuss Johnson's re-election bid next year. Two Republicans have said they would seek the seat: Republican State Rep. Joel Dykstra and Sam Kephart, a self-employed Republican businessman.
Johnson, who won re-election in 2002 by just 524 votes, was considered a top GOP target before he became ill last year. He has not indicated whether he will run again, but Senate colleagues have held multiple fundraisers, raising $1.3 million for him by the end of June.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Johnson, 60, was rushed from his Senate office to George Washington University Hospital after becoming disoriented on a conference call with reporters in December. He underwent emergency surgery for arteriovenous malformation, a condition that causes arteries and veins in the brain to grow abnormally large, become tangled and sometimes burst.
He was stricken a month after elections that gave the Democrats a one-seat majority in the Senate.