Overview
- Graham’s office announced that he died on Saturday night after a “brief and sudden illness,” and his family has asked for privacy and prayers.
- Emergency responders went to his Capitol Hill home for chest pains and a reported cardiac arrest, and photos and scanner audio show medics carrying a patient to an ambulance, though no formal cause of death has been released.
- He had just returned from a trip to Kyiv where he met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and worked on a package of Russian sanctions that he and the White House had agreed to advance.
- Under South Carolina law, Governor Henry McMaster will appoint a temporary replacement and the state must hold a special primary to choose the party’s nominee for the November general election.
- A fixture in Washington for more than 30 years, Graham was a leading voice on foreign policy and a close ally of President Trump, and his loss removes a key Senate vote and a prominent advocate for U.S. support for Ukraine and Israel.