Lindsey Graham

Graham was born in 1955 in Central, South Carolina.[1] His parents owned a restaurant, bar, and pool hall, and the family — including his younger sister — lived together in a single room behind the business.[2] He attended D. W. Daniel High School before becoming the first member of his family to go to college, earning a Bachelor of Arts from the University of South Carolina in 1977.[1][2]

While Graham was in college, his mother died of Hodgkin lymphoma and his father died shortly afterward following a prostate-cancer diagnosis.[2] Left without parents, Graham assumed legal guardianship of his younger sister.[2] He went on to earn a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1981.[1] He never married and had no children.[2]

Graham was commissioned as a judge advocate in the United States Air Force in 1982 and began his service as an active-duty defense attorney.[3] From 1984 to 1988, he served as the Air Force's chief prosecutor for Europe, based at Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany.[3] After his active-duty years, he continued in the South Carolina Air National Guard and the United States Air Force Reserve, including a recall to active duty during the Persian Gulf War.[3]

His reserve service extended well into his congressional career. Graham deployed to Iraq in 2007 and to Afghanistan in 2009, providing legal counsel on detainee affairs, rule-of-law issues, and operational law matters.[3] In 2014 he received the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service as a senior legal adviser to the U.S. Air Force in Iraq and Afghanistan from August 2009 through July 2014; he also received the Meritorious Service Medal.[3] He retired in 2015 as a colonel after more than 33 years of combined military service.[3] A House resolution introduced after his death proposed renaming the Air Force Judge Advocate General's School at Maxwell Air Force Base as "The Colonel Lindsey O. Graham Judge Advocate General's School."[3]

Graham entered South Carolina politics in 1992, winning a seat in the state House of Representatives after serving as an Assistant County Attorney for Oconee County.[1] Two years later he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing South Carolina's Third Congressional District, and served four terms from January 1995 through early 2003.[1] In 2002, he won the Senate seat vacated by the retirement of Strom Thurmond and represented South Carolina in the Senate from January 3, 2003, until his death.[1]

Over more than two decades in the Senate, Graham served on the Judiciary, Appropriations, Budget, Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Veterans' Affairs, and Environment and Public Works Committees.[1] He chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee during the 116th Congress and chaired the Senate Budget Committee during the 119th Congress.[1] Among his most prominent domestic legislative efforts was his participation in the bipartisan Senate "Gang of Eight," which produced a 2013 immigration-overhaul bill that passed the Senate 68–32 but was never taken up by the House and did not become law.[2]

Graham initially clashed sharply with Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, calling him unfit for office — a position he reversed as Trump's presidency progressed, eventually becoming one of Trump's closest allies in Congress.[4] He briefly sought the Republican presidential nomination himself in 2016 before withdrawing.[4]

Throughout his Senate career, Graham was characterized as a reliably hawkish, interventionist foreign-policy voice and a prominent advocate of American military power.[2] Alongside Senator John McCain and Senator Joe Lieberman — a trio nicknamed the "Three Amigos" — he traveled internationally to promote U.S. engagement and intervention, particularly across the Middle East following the September 11 attacks.[2]

Graham regarded Iran's regime as a danger to the Middle East, the United States, and the international community, and he advocated strong sanctions against Iran and those supporting it.[5] He was also a long-standing supporter of military assistance to Ukraine, sanctions against Russia, a stronger NATO alliance, and a U.S. policy treating the defeat of Russia as being in the American national interest.[5] Mosaic argues that Graham's support for Israel and Ukraine reflected a broader conviction that the United States could and should defend its allies, interests, and values through military power when necessary.[6]

Graham consistently supported Israel and the Jewish community across his congressional career.[7] He advocated moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, promoted U.S. security assistance for Israel, and cosponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act and the Combating BDS Act of 2017.[7] He also cosponsored legislation objecting to U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334 and made multiple wartime visits to Israel and neighboring countries.[7] The American Jewish Committee described him as having consistently backed legislation and funding for missile defense, security cooperation, and efforts to combat the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.[5]

Following Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Graham issued a statement calling Israel and the United States "friends and allies" and argued that Israel should launch an operation to destroy Hamas rather than merely contain it.[8] He characterized the attack as supported by Iran and intended to obstruct possible Saudi-Israeli peace efforts.[8] Over the 843 days that hostages were held in Gaza after the attack, Graham frequently met with the families of those kidnapped and helped elevate their calls for the hostages' return.[5]

In February 2025, Graham introduced S.Res.72 in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a resolution affirming that Hamas could not retain political or military control in the Gaza Strip, calling on the President to use economic and diplomatic tools to halt Hamas funding from Iran and other sources, and expressing support for Israel as it defended its sovereignty.[9] The Senate agreed to the resolution without amendment on March 13, 2025.[9]

During a March 2024 visit to Israel — his fourth since October 7 — Graham rejected accusations that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, calling the accusation "a blood libel."[10] He stated that Israeli forces and the government were making extraordinary efforts to provide Palestinian civilians with basic necessities, attributing civilian suffering to Hamas's use of tunnels and its alleged practice of operating behind civilian populations.[10]

On the question of a long-term political settlement, Graham argued in a 2025 Jerusalem Post interview that Israel's future requires a political horizon leading to two states — but only once genuine security conditions exist.[11] He said a one-state outcome would either end Israel's Jewish character or leave millions without rights, and warned that annexation of the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — would damage Israel's future, cost it American support, and isolate it internationally.[11] At the same time, he insisted that no Palestinian state should be accepted under conditions that could produce another October 7, and called for Hamas to be removed as both a governing and fighting force, Hezbollah to disarm, Iran to be isolated, and Arab partners to rebuild Gaza under measurable benchmarks and security guarantees for Israel.[11]

Graham died in July 2026 at age 71, while still serving in the Senate.[3][12] His office initially described the cause as a "brief and sudden illness"; subsequent reporting variously identified cardiac arrest and aortic dissection associated with arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.[7][12] He was survived by his sister, Darline Graham Nordone.[3]

The World Jewish Congress described Graham as one of Israel's "most steadfast friends" and said his commitment to the Jewish people had earned him the respect and gratitude of generations.[13] CAMERA called him an advocate for the U.S.–Israel relationship and a forceful voice against antisemitism, noting that he continued speaking in support of Israel and Jewish communities amid rising violence and misinformation following the October 7 massacre.[14] Mosaic says Graham was reportedly involved in efforts to bring Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords during the final weeks of his life.[6]

Graham's role in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election generated significant legal scrutiny. A Georgia grand jury subpoena sought to question him about calls he allegedly placed to Georgia election officials following the election.[15] Courts protected portions of potential testimony involving legislative fact-finding about election procedures and alleged voter fraud under the Speech or Debate Clause, while allowing potential questioning about non-investigatory conduct, communications with the Trump campaign, public statements, and efforts to influence officials.[15] The Supreme Court rejected Graham's request for a stay while preserving his ability to raise Speech or Debate Clause objections to specific questions.[15] The matter rested on disputed characterizations of whether Graham's calls constituted protected legislative inquiry or potentially unprotected attempts to influence state election officials.[15]