Lindsey Graham, longtime U.S. Senator who denied existence of systemic racism, dies at 71

Graham infamously said that Black people could “go anywhere” in South Carolina, as long as they were “conservative.”

Lindsey Graham, the longtime U.S. Senator from South Carolina, is dead at 71. A spokesperson for Graham said he died “from a brief and sudden illness,” but did not disclose any further details.

According to NBC News, emergency personnel responded to a call for “cardiac arrest” at Graham’s Capitol Hill home on Saturday night. He had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday.

The death of Graham, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, leaves Republicans down a member in the U.S. Senate in an already tight majority, as Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky remains hospitalized for an unknown illness.

By law, the South Carolina governor must appoint someone to serve out the rest of Graham’s term; however, a special Republican primary election for U.S. Senate will have to be held ahead of the Nov. 3 general election, as Graham was elected the party’s nominee in June. He was set to face off against Democratic nominee Annie Andrews.

As a staunch conservative Republican, Graham had little relationship with the Black community and subsequently little to no support from Black voters in South Carolina. In 2020, during a U.S. Senate debate at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests against police violence and racial profiling, Graham infamously said that Black people, 90% of whom voted Democrat, could “go anywhere” in South Carolina, as long as they were “conservative.”

Graham, who earned his bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctorate from the University of South Carolina, also denied the existence of systemic racism in the U.S., arguing that the elections of America’s first Black president, Barack Obama, and first Black and South Asian vice president, Kamala Harris, were evidence of an America that had moved past racism.

Graham notably defended President Obama against vitriol from the far-right of his party, calling it “unhealthy.” He told CNN in 2015, “To those people who think Obama’s a Muslim who was born in Kenya, I lost you a long time ago.” He added, “There’s a dislike of Obama in my party that’s unhealthy; there was a dislike for President (George W.) Bush in the Democratic party that was unhealthy. He is my President.”

As a prominent member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham voted for and advanced several conservative judicial nominees whom civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and Legal Defense Fund have actively opposed because of records they argue were hostile to civil rights. Graham notably voted against confirming Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Senator Graham was once critical of Donald Trump when he first ran for president in 2016, calling the then real estate mogul and reality TV star a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.” However, after Trump’s victorious election, Graham stunned many by suddenly becoming one of his staunchest defenders.

After Trump called the white nationalist group, the Proud Boys, “very fine people” following a deadly protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, Graham was photographed having dinner with Joe Biggs, a prominent organizer of the Proud Boys. Ironically, before this encounter, Graham called the Proud Boys a “racist organization.”

In a Truth Social post reacting to Graham’s death, President Trump called the U.S. senator “one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known.”

“He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!!” wrote the 80-year-old president.