Congress lost one of its most influential members Saturday evening when Lindsey Graham suddenly died after nearly a quarter of a century in the U.S. Senate.

He died July 11 from “a brief and sudden illness,” his office said in a statement sent at 1:54 a.m. Sunday. He turned 71 two days earlier.

The preliminary cause of death was an aortic dissection — a tear in the aorta, the body’s main artery — due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to the medical examiner of the District of Columbia. A death certificate is still pending.

Graham’s death brought an outpouring of tributes from around the world and from across the aisle Sunday, as many reflected on his political legacy and mourned his surprising death.

Though his politics sometimes flip-flopped, the senior senator from South Carolina was a close confidant of President Donald Trump and the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, a powerful member of Congress and a steady supporter of U.S. allies abroad.

Graham frequently found himself in the center of news in Washington, D.C., and often appeared on national TV interview programs. He was scheduled to make his 64th appearance on Meet the Press on Sunday.

Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker praised Graham at the end of her Sunday show as one who “believed that democracy is strengthened when we continue the conversation though we disagree.”

He was a prolific campaign fundraiser, though he always easily won competitive Senate elections. In 2020, his most recent reelection, Graham beat Democrat Jaime Harrison by more than 200,000 votes, 54%-44%.

Trump said Sunday morning on Meet the Press he spoke to Graham — who was reported to have just returned from a trip to Ukraine — shortly before his death, when he sounded “perfect” but a little bit tired.

While some could pivot to a new career if they weren’t reelected, Trump said he couldn’t imagine Graham doing anything other than serving in the U.S. Senate.

“I said the reason I’m endorsing you is because I got to make sure you win,” Trump said on Meet the Press. “Because if you didn’t win, I don’t think you could handle life. I really don’t.”

Graham was born July 9, 1955. He grew up in the small Upstate town of Central, in Pickens County just outside Clemson. His family ran a restaurant, bar, pool hall and liquor store, which had a room in the back for the family to live in.

“Great training for the U.S. Senate,” Graham joked to a crowd of Lexington County supporters in May this year.

He later attended the University of South Carolina, becoming the first in his family to go to college. There he earned his bachelor’s and law degrees.

“He wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth at all,” said Dick Singleton, Graham’s high school football coach, in a 2015 interview with The State.

Both of his parents died within 15 months of one another while he was a college student. Graham then cared for and adopted his 13-year-old sister, Darline Graham Nordone.

“He’s always been there for me, no matter what,” she said in a campaign ad for Graham, released earlier this year ahead of the June primary.

He served in the U.S. Air Force for 33 years, including more than six years of active duty as a lawyer. He retired from the Air Force Reserves in 2015 as a colonel.

Graham was a lawmaker for more than three decades, beginning in 1992, when he served one term in the state House of Representatives. Then in 1994, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where in 1999 he served as one of the House managers during the Senate trial of President Bill Clinton, who had been impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice.

It was during the controversy over Clinton’s actions that Graham, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, first gained national prominence. Because of his articulate outspokenness and his understandable way of framing issues, he began in 1998 to make regular appearances on morning and Sunday talk shows and to be quoted about Clinton and impeachment in mainstream daily newspapers such as The New York Times.

Graham’s prominence helped him easily win his bid for a vacant U.S. Senate in 2002, defeating College of Charleston president and former S.C. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Sanders, a Democrat. The seat became vacant after longtime Sen. Strom Thurmond declined to run again. Graham held the seat until his death Saturday evening.

“He spent his life in public service because he loved America and felt like his story was not possible anywhere else,” U.S. Sen. Tim Scott said on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday morning.

Before becoming a staunch Trump defender, Graham was part of a bipartisan group of eight senators who worked on an immigration overhaul. The bill crafted by the so-called “gang of 8” passed the Senate but never made it out of the House.

At the time of his death, Graham was one of Trump’s tightest allies in Congress. They often played golf together, and Trump said on Meet the Press he frequently visited the White House.

“He was like a member of the family to me, it’s very tough,” Trump said on Meet the Press on Sunday morning.

Even though Graham ran against Trump for president in 2016 and voted for independent Evan McMullin in the general election, he became one of Trump staunchest supporters. But that doesn’t mean they always had a smooth relationship.

Graham harshly criticized Trump during their bids for the White House.

In December 2015, Graham called Trump “a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot” who didn’t represent the values of the GOP and people in the military.

After the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Graham spoke against the riot and voted to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.

“Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey,” Graham said on the Senate floor Jan. 6, 2021, hours after the rioters had been driven or retreated from the Capitol. “I hate it to end this way.”

“All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough,” Graham continued.

But like many in Republican Party who realized that to oppose Trump would likely mean defeat in a GOP primary, Graham came to enthusiastically support Trump when he ran for president again four years later.

Graham’s support for Trump sometimes dismayed even his supporters.

After a Feb. 28, 2025, meeting in the Oval Office where Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance bullied Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy telling him he was losing to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Graham told reporters he supported Trump’s statements. Zelenskyy needs to resign or change his ways, Graham said.

That shocked people in South Carolina who consider Zelenskyy a freedom fighter who has been waging a brave fight against tough odds opposing the Russian invaders.

“You broke my heart,” Columbia Rotarian John Bakhaus, a lifelong Republican, told Graham at a Rotary meeting a week later. “I think his (Trump’s) intention was to embarrass a duly elected president of a country at war, and it really made me sad.”

Graham appeared taken aback, quipped “Sorry about that” and indicated he may have spoken out of frustration.

Any peace deal with Ukraine should come with ironclad guarantees to protect that country’s long term security, Graham told Rotarians. “If you trust Putin, you’re making a huge mistake,” Graham said. “He will change his behavior only when the pain is too great.”

Graham spent more than two decades in U.S. Senate

Trump said Graham was a good politician, and despite being a “tough cookie,” he could persuade people to come to his side.

Apart from his relationships in the executive and congress, Graham also held powerful positions in the U.S. Senate. He chaired both the Judiciary and Budget committees at different points in his career. As Budget Committee chairman, he moved the massive budget reconciliation bill in 2025 and recently helped fund the Department of Homeland Security.

While serving on the Judiciary Committee, Graham helped block President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, saying the next president should get to pick.

“Judge Garland’s a fine man, but this should be done by the next president,” Graham said in 2016.

Four years later Graham, while running for reelection, was instrumental in helping Trump-appointee Amy Coney Barrett get Senate approval, despite predecessor Ruth Bader Ginsburg dying less than two months before the 2020 election.

But one of his biggest legacies, according to Trump, was how he helped confirm U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Kavanaugh was accused of sexually assaulting a classmate in high school, throwing his confirmation into uncertainty.

“This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics,” Graham said in an emotional speech during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing.

Trump said his 2018 defense of Kavanaugh was a “classic” and saved the nomination. Graham also helped confirm Trump-appointed judges and promised to promote more conservative judges if reelected in November. Graham would have been Judiciary Chair again if Republicans held control of the Senate, and he won his own reelection bid.

Others said his smaller achievements helped define his career. U.S. Rep. Russell Fry said Graham once told him helping constituents or small South Carolina towns solve their problems were his most meaningful accomplishments.

“He believed those moments added up to a lifetime of meaningful service,” Fry said in a statement.

Graham was also known for his hawkish stance toward international conflict and support for allies, even when it wasn’t popular. The “American First” flank of GOP opponents and Democrats often criticized Graham’s push to begin and continue the ongoing conflict in Iran. He had just returned from his 10th trip to Ukraine when he died.

“He was literally one of the edgiest guys as it relates to foreign policy you’d ever meet,” Scott said on CNN Sunday. “But it was never because he was a warmonger. It’s because he wanted to see peace in every place possible.”

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy both mourned Graham Tuesday.

“I think America has lost a great patriot,” Netanyahu said on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday morning. “Israel has lost one of the great champions of the American-Israeli alliance. And frankly, I’ve lost a beloved friend who I’ve had for many decades.”

Those paying tribute to Graham often recognized his sense of humor. When Scott was organizing his first annual prayer breakfast, he invited Graham, Scott said on Meet the Press Sunday morning. The breakfast started at 8:30 a.m. He recounted that Graham said “I’m not coming if Jesus comes back before 10 a.m.”

Graham arrived at 8:31 a.m., Scott said. He later said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” he would rename his annual prayer breakfast for Graham.

“Lindsey was always the person you hoped you sat next to at a dinner party,” wrote Meghan McCain, daughter of Graham’s mentor John McCain, in the Washington Post. “Charming and very funny — like, so funny he could have had a career in stand-up comedy.”

Graham is survived by his younger sister — Darline Graham Nordone — and her family. Graham never married, though he once joked on the campaign trail for president he would have a “rotating” First Lady.

Graham’s death was followed by tributes from people across the political spectrum, including Democrats and Republicans who opposed him.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, said he was willing to work with her and at times take political risks when he believed it was right.

“Lindsey had a zest for life and the Senate that made you want to get to work on a bill with him or at least debate him. He brought joy to his job,” Klobuchar said in a tribute post Sunday.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who can choose Graham’s temporary replacement, mourned the senator and directed flags to fly on state government buildings at half staff indefinitely.

“This is a man, we’re lucky to have him,” McMaster said of Graham in May. “We couldn’t make another one if we started right now. We got to keep him where he is, as long as he stays and is willing to work.”

Reporters Joseph Bustos and John Monk contributed to this article.

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