U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), 71, died of a sudden brief illness, his office said. An emergency team responded to his Washington residence Saturday night after he reported chest pains; he was declared dead around 2:00 a.m. Sunday.
Graham, senator since January 2003, was a longtime opponent of Puerto Rico statehood, telling this outlet in spring 2023 that statehood would dilute South Carolina's political power, though he said he had no problem with the current territorial status quo. In April 2017, Graham was among eight Republican senators who asked then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to rule that Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Nevares' planned June 2017 statehood plebiscite violated the U.S. Constitution for not including the territorial Commonwealth option.
Under President Biden, he was one of a few Republicans who voted to confirm federal judges Gina Méndez Miró, María Antongiorgi Jordán and Camille Vélez Rivé to the San Juan federal court. Graham had a shifting relationship with President Trump, initially criticizing him in 2016, later becoming a close ally, briefly distancing after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, then reuniting with him. Trump said Graham called him Saturday night after returning from his tenth trip to Ukraine, saying he was tired but had no specific complaints.