WASHINGTON, D.C. — The sudden death of Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina sent shockwaves through Washington.
Graham’s sudden death on Saturday came just hours before a photo and statement from former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Rumors have swirled for weeks about McConnell’s prolonged absence from the U.S. Senate.
Both absences will temporarily shrink Republicans’ majority in the Senate.
“With the absence now of Senator Graham from the relevant committees he was on, you miss somebody with a lot of experience on how to get things done. And that’s really important,” said Dr. Todd Belt, professor and director of George Washington University’s Political Management Master’s Program. “It is a pretty significant loss.”
The death of the longtime South Carolina Republican, medical officials say, was due to an aortic dissection from an underlying cardiovascular disease.
The 71-year-old was first elected to the Senate in 2002. He previously served in the U.S. House, where he was first elected in 1994. He was campaigning for a fifth term this year.
Graham was one of the Republican Party’s leading voices on foreign policy, national security and support for Ukraine. He had just returned to Washington from his tenth trip to Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. President Donald Trump said he spoke with Graham Saturday night, shortly before first responders arrived to his residence.
A former Trump critic who also ran for president in 2016, Graham became one of President Trump’s closest allies and strongest defenders.
“It’s difficult to count the ways in which Lindsey’s friendship made this job richer and its burden lighter,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said on the Senate floor Monday. “He never minced words or pulled punches … he always could make me laugh … always.”
Senators, especially Republicans, said it is a huge loss.
“It is difficult to believe that Lindsey Graham is no longer here with us – that we won’t run into him at a meeting today, or share a joke with him at this afternoon’s vote,” Thune said. “The halls of the Senate already feel empty without him. And I know that I am not alone in that feeling.”
Graham’s death, and the prolonged absence of Mitch McConnell, will temporarily bring the Senate GOP’s majority from 53 seats to 51.
“Well, certainly anything that has to pass through regular order — with that Senate filibuster procedure — is going to be a higher threshold to get to those 60 votes,” Belt said. “And then you have to think about the opportunity to do another budget reconciliation bill, which means that they would have to get just a simple majority. That’s still going to be harder because you have somebody like Rand Paul who votes against all of those bills every single time. So you have to take another one off the board, which means it could be very, very close in those votes. It might even come down to J.D. Vance as a tiebreaker.”
Gov. Henry McMaster, R-S.C., announced he would appoint Graham’s sister to replace her brother and serve the remainder of the term. The decision was backed by President Trump, who expressed support earlier Monday for Darline Graham Nordone to replace her brother.
Graham was actively campaigning for his fifth Senate term. Republicans are favored in the red state, however, state GOP leaders are now tasked with finding a more permanent replacement to face off in November.
“There is an election that was slated to go on in South Carolina. The Republicans will have to have at least one primary in August to select who will run instead of Lindsey Graham against the Democratic nominee,” Belt said. “And the reason why they might have two, is that there’s a runoff procedure if somebody doesn’t get more than 50% the first time around, which means it’s going to be a very short campaign.”
There was also some light shed on another high-profile Senate absence over the weekend.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has been in the hospital since mid-June, released a statement and photo on Sunday to provide an update on his health. Rumors had swirled about McConnell’s condition in recent days and weeks.
In the statement, the longtime Kentucky Republican senator said he fell at his home in Washington and then contracted a mild case of pneumonia while in the hospital. The statement also said he “won’t be able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet.”
