Beloved or not, Lindsey Graham was a critical dealmaker in Congress | US politics

While Democrats and Republicans were locked in a standoff earlier this year that led the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history, news of a path forward emerged with a statement from Republican senator Lindsey Graham.

Graham played a key role in rallying the GOP behind a plan to reopen DHS by announcing that the budget committee he chairs would work on a measure for the remainder of his presidency that would provide funding to the agencies leading Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

It was a familiar role for Graham, whose office announced Saturday that he had died at age 71 after a “brief and sudden illness.” During his 23 years as a South Carolina senator, Graham earned a reputation as a dealmaker, emerging in the midst of critical negotiations with the Democratic opposition and members of his own party. It was a role that continued in the era of Trump, whom Graham supported even though he had reservations about his foreign policy approach.

“Lindsey was part of every major policy issue and an indispensable player on every Senate ‘mob,'” said Dick Durbin, the number two Senate Democrat. “One day he was a fierce Republican partisan and the next day he was a key bipartisan ally.”

In the public eye, Graham’s reputation as the former often eclipsed the latter. Although he has been involved in negotiations with Democrats, he has rarely gone so far as to oppose when a person from his own party is in the White House. Graham, who rose to national prominence for his harsh criticism of Trump during the 2016 election and then turning into a supporter, was a key player in Senate Republicans’ unsuccessful efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and was involved in Trump’s attempts to block Joe Biden from taking office after the 2020 election.

But his career has been marked by repeated examples of working across the aisle to resolve thorny legislative issues, with varying degrees of success.

Graham, who served four terms in the House of Representatives before winning election to the Senate in 2002, was a hawk on foreign policy throughout his life. He was neoconservative during the presidency of George W. Bush, when the ideology was at its most popular; He supported the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the use of Guantanamo Bay to house detainees from the war on terror.

Yet under the same administration, he became a negotiating partner with liberal icon Sen. Ted Kennedy and other Democrats on failed attempts at immigration reform and was among the “gang of 14” who brokered a bipartisan compromise on confirming Bush judicial nominees.

Early in his administration, Barack Obama negotiated a deal with Democrats to combat the climate crisis, but the talks failed. Years later, he joined the “gang of eight” in an unsuccessful attempt at immigration reform.

He voted for the two Supreme Court justices Obama nominated to the bench; two were put forward by Bush and three were nominated by Trump, but Biden opposed Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination. Still, he was among 15 Republicans who voted for a modest package of policy changes aimed at addressing gun violence following the 2022 massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

When Trump returned to the White House last year, Graham’s position as budget committee chairman made him the lead senator on passage of the Big Beautiful Bill, which funded many of the president’s domestic priorities.

“I’ll never forget the Senate luncheon where a few senators were a little off schedule and Lindsey – in a unique way – made sure everyone was there until we left. It was an amazing thing to witness. She knew how to move a room,” said Stephen Miller, the influential White House deputy chief of staff.

While some Republicans grimaced at Trump’s decision to attack Iran without congressional authorization, Graham applauded both the campaign and the commando raid that led to Nicolás Maduro’s capture in Venezuela earlier this year. But those same hawkish beliefs have led him to work across the aisle on foreign policy priorities to which the White House has received less attention.

While Trump prattled on about supporting Ukraine against Russian invasion, Graham remained adamant about continued aid and had returned from a visit to Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kiev just before his death. A long-time supporter of the US’s Kurdish allies in Syria, he joined Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal in introducing a bill that would have imposed sanctions on Syria’s government after fighting broke out between the two sides earlier this year.

He was also a supporter of NATO, despite the president’s flirtation with undermining the alliance.

“While we disagreed fiercely on many policies, he was complex and could not be brushed aside,” said Democratic senator Chris Coons, who celebrated Graham’s birthday with dinner during the NATO summit in Türkiye last week.

“Several of the most important bills I passed were with Lindsey, from providing protection in Africa to encouraging America’s balanced engagement with fragile states. I will miss having her as a partner in the Senate.”

Graham was closing deals to completion. The day before his death, he was among a bipartisan group of four senators who announced an agreement with the Trump administration on a bill to punish countries that buy oil and gas from Russia. The news came while Graham was in Ukraine, and Zelenskyy said the senator personally informed him of the developments.

“It is important that our long-term sanctions pressure on Russia is strengthened by new sanctions steps from our partners,” the Ukrainian president wrote after the meeting. “Lindsey briefed me on the work being done on the bill in Congress.”