SALEM, OR -- The 2016 Republican candidate for Oregon governor, Doctor Bud Pierce of Salem announced in an email to the news media a statement about the death last night of his wife, Doctor Selma Pierce, a retired dentist. The statement says "The glue of the Pierce family, an angel of a person, the only woman that I have ever loved, died this (Tuesday) evening in a sudden and tragic accident." Pierce's statement concluded, "We cannot believe that she has left us, but we are comforted in the knowledge that she is witrh God. and we will see her again." Earlier this week Pierce announced he would seek the GOP nomination for governor again in 2022.