Candidate for Philadelphia Mayor Says ‘Mental Illness’ Has Kept Her From Working for 8 Years. She is Endorsed by the GOP.

• Philadelphia Republican Party’s endorsed candidate for mayor, Daphne Goggins, suffers from anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder, she told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
• Goggins, the first black female endorsed by the Philadelphia GOP, hasn’t held a paid job since 2010 and supports herself financially through federal disability benefits.
• Goggins said she will give up her disability benefits if she wins her election. She said she’s fit to serve as mayor of the sixth-largest city in the United States because her cabinet would do most of the work for her.
• Goggins said her mental illnesses shouldn’t prevent her from serving as mayor but also said late Arizona Sen. John McCain should have stepped down from the Senate because of his “brain problems.”

The Philadelphia Republican Party’s endorsed candidate for mayor, Daphne Goggins, hasn’t worked a paid job in eight years due to anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder, she revealed during a phone interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Goggins became the first black woman to receive the endorsement of the Philadelphia GOP on Feb. 13, but her endorsement swiftly came under fire after one of her primary opponents, Billy Ciancaglini, said she hasn’t held a paid job since 2010 and has been relying on federal disability benefits to support herself.

The revelation prompted party chairman Michael Meehan to organize a meeting Monday with ward leaders to reconsider the party’s endorsement of Goggins. The disability benefits she receives are meant for people unable “to perform any job in the national economy,” Meehan said. “I think the mayor’s job is one in the national economy and is a sticking a point.”

The ward leaders voted 29 to 18 on Monday against reconsidering Goggins’ endorsement, solidifying the Philadelphia GOP’s support of her in the lead up to the May 21 primary.

Goggins, who is a ward leader herself, kept her colleagues in the dark prior to Monday’s vote regarding the conditions that qualify her for disability benefits. Goggins said in January she suffers from fibromyalgia, a musculoskeletal pain disorder, but told reporters Monday that isn’t why she collects disability.

‘I truly believe that God disabled me’

Goggins, a 56-year-old single mother of three, revealed to TheDCNF on Tuesday that mental illness is what’s kept her away from the paid workforce since 2010.

“The reason I was actually disabled is mental illness,” Goggins said in a phone interview. “I take a chance in saying this because I may lose some voters.”

“Bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety is what I treat for,” she said.

Goggins said her mental illnesses materialized after she stopped snorting cocaine in 2005.

“When I first got clean from snorting cocaine and being a functioning addict, I realized that my job was to stay clean,” she said. “As the years went on I saw the issues that I had. Then I got the breast cancer. Then the diabetes came along. I actually fell into a coma last year because I took the wrong medication.”

“I went from making $60,000 a year to living off of $600 a month and food stamps,” she said.

Following the publication of this story, Goggins clarified to TheDCNF that the above figure represented her income in 2005. She said she stopped collecting food stamps in 2010 after she began to collect disability but declined to share her current monthly income, which she said is higher than $600 a month.

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