The United States has turned the page on one of the most prominent foreign policy figures in the Republican Party, after the sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham at the age of 71, while a preliminary medical report revealed that the cause of death was due to dissection of the aorta resulting from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, awaiting the issuance of the final report after the completion of laboratory and toxicological tests.
According to a report by journalists Dan Diamond and Mariana Alfaro, Graham died a few hours after returning from a visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky. On Saturday evening, he had also made a phone call with US President Donald Trump, who said that the senator told him that he felt tired, but he seemed in good condition, adding that that call “may be the last” between them.
Graham’s office explained that the preliminary report issued by the Washington Department of Forensic Medicine showed that death resulted from a dissection of the inner layer of the aorta due to atherosclerosis, while the cause of death will be officially updated after all examinations are completed.
Emergency services recordings showed that ambulance teams received a report on Saturday evening about a man suffering from chest pains inside Graham’s home in the Capitol Hill area, before he underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation and was transported to George Washington University Hospital, where he was later declared dead.
Graham’s death had direct political repercussions, as the Republican majority in the Senate was reduced until a temporary replacement was appointed. According to South Carolina state law, Republican Governor Henry McMaster has the authority to appoint a member to fill the seat until the end of the current term in January 2027, while special primaries will be held to choose the Republican nominee for the next general elections.
Among the names proposed to succeed him is businessman Mark Lynch, who finished second in the recent primary elections, along with Paul Danz, a former official in the Trump administration, and Representative Nancy Mace, who is considering running in the race. On the other hand, the Democrats nominated pediatrician Annie Andrews to compete for the seat.
Graham was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1994, then to the Senate in 2002, and became one of the most prominent foreign policy hawks in Washington, where he played pivotal roles in defense, foreign relations, and immigration files. He also chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first term, and led the battles to confirm a number of conservative judges in the federal courts, including Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Despite his sharp opposition to Trump during the 2016 primaries, the relationship between the two men later turned into a close alliance, and Graham became one of the president’s most prominent advisors on foreign policy files, especially the war in Ukraine, the relationship with Iran, and national security.
His death also sparked a wide wave of reactions inside and outside the United States, as Trump described him as a “true American patriot,” while Republican and Democratic officials mourned him, along with Ukrainian leaders who praised his positions in support of their country, in a scene that reflects the position that Graham occupied within American political life over three decades.
