Washington State Senator Doug Ericksen confirmed to KIRO Radio on Friday that he’s in rough shape after testing positive for COVID-19 on a trip to El Salvador.
Reports first surfaced on Twitter from an account known as “Rotunda Tweets,” which included a screenshot of an email from Ericksen to members of the state House and Senate GOP, asking that they to send him monoclonal antibodies to treat his illness.
Ericksen confirmed those reports later in the morning to KIRO Radio, although his reason for traveling to El Salvador in the first place remains unclear. He expressed in his email to colleagues that he had tested positive for COVID shortly after arriving in the country.
In the past, Ericksen has missed several votes in the state Senate while in El Salvador, citing participation in “legislative actions” as an election observer, according to an April report from the Tacoma News Tribune.
“It’s always an interesting experience to travel to a different country to see how their election process works,” he said in a video posted to his social media accounts in March 2021. “In El Salvador, I was incredibly impressed with the organization of the election, the free and fair nature of the election, the ability for individuals to come and vote.”
Concerns over a growing authoritarian regime in the country have surfaced in recent months, after its President Nayib Bukele won a legislative majority in El Salvador’s 2021 election.