Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks after winning the Republican primary on June 9 in Columbia, S.C.
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Jeffrey Collins/AP
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., died late Saturday night following a “brief and sudden illness,” according to a statement released by his office. He was 71.
Preliminary findings from the District of Columbia medical examiner showed the cause of death as aortic dissection due to a type of heart disease, Graham’s office shared on Sunday.
An adaptable and sometimes controversial dealmaker, Graham was the last surviving member of an influential group of Senate defense hawks. During his near-quarter century in the Senate, Graham was also instrumental in enacting President Trump’s policy and staffing priorities — after first starting out as a fierce Trump critic.
Trump shared a remembrance on his Truth Social platform: “Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead! He was always working, and was a true American Patriot.” Trump asked that U.S. flags be lowered to half-staff until the evening at 6 p.m. ET in memory of Graham.
Graham’s death comes at a difficult moment for the Senate Republican conference, which has struggled with a narrow majority that includes a handful of outgoing members who occasionally break ranks to oppose the president.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune called Graham “a strong advocate for the United States and a strong ally to freedom-loving countries across the globe,” in a statement posted on X. “Lindsey fought passionately for the Palmetto State. He was a trusted adviser and colleague to me and many others, and numerous presidents and heads of state have relied on his counsel.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has missed votes during an apparently ongoing hospitalization for an undisclosed health issue, further narrowing the margins for Thune to pass legislation and confirm executive and judicial branch nominees.
Legislative legacy
Graham served in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, when he succeeded Strom Thurmond in the Senate. He was reelected three times and recently won a primary election as he sought a fifth term.
Graham also served in the U.S. military for more than three decades. After graduating from the University of South Carolina’s law school, he served as an active duty Air Force lawyer for six years. Graham later served in both the South Carolina Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves and retired from the military in 2015 at the rank of colonel.
Retired Gen. David Petraeus, former CIA director and then-top Army general who led U.S. forces in Iraq, said Graham served under him for a brief active duty stint during the 2007 troop surge.
Petraeus said he told the Pentagon he did not welcome the idea, worried about security for a member of Congress. But Graham, with his military background, surprised Petraeus with his insights.
“After the first one. I said, ‘Come any time you can, we’ll put you to good work,'” Petraeus told NPR. Graham did a dozen or so stints after that, Petraeus said.
Petraeus said he coined the phrase “the three amigos” to refer to Graham and the late Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat-turned-Independent. The group was a fixture of congressional delegations to conflict zones.
“No group had the backs of our men and women in uniform, or frankly, my back, more than they did,” Petreaus said.
Sen. Dirk Durbin, D-Ill., was on one of those foreign delegations with Graham this past week at the NATO Summit in Turkey.
“At a private dinner at the Ambassador’s residence, he was working every Senator on a strategy to end the war in Ukraine. Typical Lindsey,” Durbin said in a statement. “Lindsey was part of every important policy issue and an indispensable player in every Senate ‘gang’. He was a fierce Republican partisan one day and a key bipartisan ally the next.”
Graham was also among the most vocal supporters of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran.
“Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot. I have lost a beloved friend,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement posted to X.
Trump critic turned staunch ally
Graham also sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and staked a lane as a fierce critic of Donald Trump. In a 2015 CNN interview, Graham referred to then-candidate Trump as “a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot” who doesn’t represent the views of the Republican Party.
In the decade since Trump’s victory, though, Graham has become one of the president’s advocates. A longtime friend and ally of McCain, Graham and his friends attributed his transformation to a sense of patriotic duty.
“I am not going to give up on the idea of working with this president. The best way I can honor John McCain is help my country,” he told CBS News in 2018.
He also spoke about his change of heart with Petraeus, the retired general.
“It was quite simple. He said he wanted to continue to influence our foreign policy,” Petraeus said in the NPR interview. “And to do that, he needed to make some concessions in terms of domestic politics… and developed a very strong friendship with the president.”
During Trump’s time in the White House, Graham served as chair of two committees key to the president’s agenda.
As chair of the Judiciary Committee during much of Trump’s first term, Graham oversaw the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and of scores of federal judges.
And last year as head of the budget committee, Graham shepherded the president’s landmark tax package, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, to passage despite unanimous Democratic opposition and thorny negotiations with his Republican colleagues.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. (left) gestures as President Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One as they were returning to Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Jan. 4.
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A frequent Trump golf companion, Graham hewed closely to the president in his recent Senate primary election — his campaign website touts the president’s “Complete and Total Endorsement.”
Graham was born in Central, S.C., in 1955 and lived with his family in a single room behind their liquor store, restaurant and pool hall, according to his campaign biography. His parents died while Graham was still in school. After their death, Graham became the primary caretaker of his younger sister, Darline, whom he eventually legally adopted.
In a statement on the social media platform X, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster described Graham as “irreplaceable,” adding, “We shall not see his likes again.”
McMaster, a Republican, will appoint a successor to serve the remainder of Graham’s term. A replacement Republican nominee for this fall’s general election race will be determined by a special election in August.
NPR’s Brian Mann and Barbara Sprunt contributed to this report.
