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U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key Republican who went from a vocal critic of Donald Trump to one of his most loyal allies on Capitol Hill after Trump became president, has died, his office announced on Sunday. He was 71.
The South Carolina lawmaker died after a “brief and sudden illness,” his office posted on social media platform X. U.S. media said emergency personnel had responded to a call for cardiac arrest at his Capitol Hill home on Saturday night.
Hours later, another statement from Graham’s office said the Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia’s preliminary findings are that the senator died of aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. That is an aorta rupture stemming from hardening of the arteries.
The contest to succeed Graham will not impact the broader fight for control of the U.S. Senate in November between Republicans and Democrats, as South Carolina is a reliably Republican state.
However, his death robs Trump of a dependable Senate vote as the president seeks to push his agenda in the closely divided Senate.
“He’s a tough one to lose,” Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press program on Sunday. “He was great. He was unique in every way.”
Another senior Republican in the upper chamber — Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — remains hospitalized for undisclosed health problems.
Trump, speaking on CNN’s State of the Union program, said Graham, who had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, called him on Saturday night. “Other than being tired, he was fine,” Trump said.
The president said he received news of Graham’s death early Sunday morning.
Under South Carolina law, the state’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster, can immediately appoint a temporary replacement to fill Graham’s seat.
South Carolina Republicans must then hold an expedited primary election to pick a nominee for the November midterm election. That nominee does not have to be the same person McMaster picks as a temporary replacement.
Graham, a defence hawk, was a prominent supporter of Israel and Ukraine, and an opponent of Iran. He himself had been scheduled to appear on Meet the Press on Sunday morning, the network said.
World leaders react
Shortly after his death was announced, Trump called Graham “one of the greatest people and senators I have known” and a hard-working patriot.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was “deeply saddened,” calling Graham “a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer.”
“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. Netanyahu expects to attend Graham’s funeral, a senior Israeli official said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney also offered his condolences.
“Senator Lindsey Graham dedicated his life to serving the people of South Carolina and the United States,” he wrote on X. “Throughout his career, he stood resolutely in defence of democracy and freedom, most recently and particularly with Ukraine and its people.”
Former Trump critic
During the 2016 campaign, Graham was among many Republicans who lost the presidential nomination to Trump. He posted on social media: “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it.”
Graham told CNN in 2015 that Trump was “a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot,” adding, “He doesn’t represent my party. He doesn’t represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for.”
Later, after becoming a staunch supporter and frequent golf partner, Graham still publicly disagreed with Trump’s early 2025 decision to pardon about 1,500 of the president’s supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, saying it could lead to more violence.
“They did not always agree, but they always agreed to disagree without being disagreeable.… They figured out how to have a friendship,” Graham’s Republican colleague from South Carolina, Sen. Tim Scott, told Meet the Press.
On Friday, Graham met Zelenskyy in Kyiv, and the Ukrainian leader said the two discussed Ukraine’s air defence needs and a Russia sanctions bill.
Graham said China could play a decisive role in pressuring Russia toward peace talks, helping end its war in Ukraine.
“The road to ending this war, the road to peace, passes through Beijing more than it does [through] Washington, Kyiv or Moscow,” Graham told reporters at Kyiv’s Mykhailivska Square. “China has an oversized influence. I’d like them to use their influence for the good of the world.
“I don’t believe [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is there yet, but it wouldn’t take much to get him there.”
Zelenskyy noted that Graham had visited Ukraine 10 times since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.
Graham recently served as chairman of the Senate budget committee and was a member of the Senate committee on appropriations, Senate judiciary committee and Senate committee on environment and public works.
A former air force lawyer and member of the South Carolina Air National Guard, Graham was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002. Before that, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 for South Carolina’s 3rd congressional district, according to his website.
He was not married and lived in Seneca, S.C.