Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and stalwart ally of President Trump who was a forceful advocate for an interventionist U.S. foreign policy, has died, his office announced early on Sunday. He was 71.
He died of a “brief and sudden” illness on Saturday evening, his office said in a statement. Mr. Graham had been scheduled to speak on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, after a recent trip to Ukraine. Mr. Graham’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry on the cause of death.
Mr. Graham was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, before being elected to the Senate in 2002. He was re-elected to the Senate in 2008, 2014 and 2020. Last month, Mr. Graham won the South Carolina Republican primary in a bid to serve a fifth term in the Senate, fending off five challengers.
Mr. Trump offered condolences on social media early Sunday, calling Mr. Graham “one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known.”
“He was always working, and was a true American Patriot,” Mr. Trump added. “Lindsey will be greatly missed!!!”
Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina, a Republican, can immediately appoint a temporary replacement to fill Mr. Graham’s Senate seat. According to South Carolina law, an election for a full-term successor would be held in November.
Mr. Graham’s death comes as another influential senator, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, is currently hospitalized for undisclosed health reasons. It leaves Senate Republicans without a senior lawmaker and reliable vote as they face pressure from Mr. Trump to continue advancing his legislative agenda.
Mr. Graham, who also sought the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, consistently argued for the use of American military power overseas. He was a fierce supporter of Israel and of Ukraine, making multiple trips to both countries, and he most recently supported aggressive military action against Iran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel shared his condolences on social media, calling Mr. Graham a “beloved friend.”
“Lindsey understood that the security of Israel and America are inseparable,” Mr. Netanyahu wrote, adding, “Israel has lost one of its greatest friends.”
Mr. Graham helped navigate Ukraine’s strained relations with the Trump administration after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and had often visited Kyiv, the capital, despite regular Russian bombardment of the city. On his recent trip to Ukraine, Mr. Graham visited a drone factory and met with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Lindsey was a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer,” Mr. Zelensky wrote on social media on Sunday, saying he was “deeply saddened” by Mr. Graham’s death.
Mr. Graham was also one of many powerful Republicans who changed their public position on Mr. Trump. As Mr. Trump was rising in the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Graham lambasted him as a “demagogue” and a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.”
“You know how you make America great again?” Mr. Graham said in a 2015 CNN interview: “Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.”
A decade later, he was regularly and effusively lauding Mr. Trump. In a speech celebrating his primary victory last month, Mr. Graham joked, “Mr. President, you’re not far behind God.”
Over his Senate career, Mr. Graham led two influential committees, Judiciary and Budget.
As head of the Judiciary Committee, he oversaw the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He also played a critical role during the 2016 fight over President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the court, aiding in Republicans’ success in blocking the pick.
More broadly, Mr. Graham was instrumental in advancing Mr. Trump’s effort to reshape the federal judiciary.
During his tenure at the helm of the committee, the Senate confirmed more than 200 federal judges, including Ms. Barrett, cementing one of the defining conservative judicial legacies of the Trump era.
As chairman of the Budget Committee, Mr. Graham played a central role in translating Mr. Trump’s domestic agenda into legislation. He oversaw the budget resolution that allowed Republicans to advance much of the president’s sweeping tax, immigration and spending package without support from Senate Democrats.
The effort required months of negotiations among warring factions within his party before the tax package became law last year. Mr. Graham, along with Republican leaders and the Trump administration, embraced budget reconciliation as the party’s primary vehicle for enacting Mr. Trump’s agenda at a time when Republicans lacked the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
Those efforts became a defining accomplishment of Mr. Trump’s return to Washington with a Republican-controlled legislature, and highlighted not only the growing influence of Mr. Graham within his party but also his transformation from Trump critic into a steadfast and outspoken ally.
After a volley of criticism around Mr. Trump’s first presidential run, the two men became close allies, bonding over regular golf outings. While Mr. Graham occasionally voiced disagreements with Mr. Trump, they largely remained in lock step on most policy issues.
“If you want somebody who can go to Washington to help him, I’m your best choice,” Mr. Graham said of Mr. Trump during his recent campaign.
Lindsey Graham was born in Central, S.C., a town in the western part of the state, on July 9, 1955. His parents operated a cafe that he and his sister worked in as they grew up.
“My home was a bar,” he recalled in his 2015 memoir “My Story.” “I was loved. Inside those walls, as much as any child could be loved, by two devoted parents.”
His life changed while in college, when his parents died 15 months apart. His mother died of Hodgkin lymphoma, and his father later died of a heart attack. After their deaths, Mr. Graham became the legal guardian of his 13-year-old sister, Darline, later adopting her so she could receive his military benefits.
“Lindsey was always my parent,” Darline Graham Nordone told The New York Times in an interview at the bar their family once owned at the launch of Mr. Graham’s presidential campaign. “There was no doubt in my mind or anyone else’s mind that Lindsey was my guardian.”
After earning undergraduate and law degrees from the University of South Carolina, Mr. Graham served as a lawyer in the U.S. Air Force before beginning his career in politics. After serving as a judge during the Persian Gulf war, Mr. Graham was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1992. He won a U.S. House seat in 1994 and served terms, then spent more than two decades in the Senate following his election in 2002.
Mr. Graham’s military career continued throughout much of his time in Congress; he remained in the Air Force Reserve and was briefly deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan as a senator.
“He was a strong advocate for the United States and a strong ally to freedom-loving countries across the globe,” Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, wrote on social media. “He believed in the might of America to achieve good in the world.”
Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Yan Zhuang from Seoul.
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