From the Associated Press — A former Michigan congressman says he survived a high-risk surgery to remove a mass and a blood clot near his heart. Paul Mitchell didn’t seek reelection in 2020 after two terms. He says he was recently diagnosed with renal cancer. Mitchell told radio station WJR that he was near death when he had surgery two weeks ago at Henry Ford Macomb Hospital. In 2016 and 2018, Mitchell was elected in the 10th District, a safe Republican seat in Michigan’s Thumb. In December, near the end of his second term, Mitchell quit the Republican Party and became an independent as a protest against GOP efforts to fight President Joe Biden’s election victory.
