Lindsey Graham

Lindsey Olin Graham was a Republican politician who represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 2003 until his death in 2026. Born in Central, South Carolina, he graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1977 and a law degree in 1981. Graham served as a military lawyer in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps from 1982 to 1989. He later continued his military service in the South Carolina Air National Guard and the U.S. Air Force Reserve, eventually retiring with the rank of colonel in 2015. Graham's political career began in the South Carolina House of Representatives, where he served from 1993 to 1995. He was first elected to the U.S. Congress in 1994, representing South Carolina's 3rd district in the House of Representatives. During his time in the House, he gained national attention as an impeachment manager during the 1998 trial of President Bill Clinton. In 2002, he was elected to the U.S. Senate to succeed the retiring Strom Thurmond. Throughout his Senate tenure, Graham was a leading member of the Judiciary and Appropriations Committees and served as Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee during the 119th Congress.

Graham was widely recognized as a 'defense hawk,' advocating for an interventionist foreign policy that included robust military support for Israel, Ukraine, and NATO, and a confrontational stance toward Iran and Russia. On economic policy, he was a fiscal conservative who supported tax cuts, federal spending reductions, and entitlement reform to address the national debt. His record on immigration was marked by his participation in the bipartisan 'Gang of Eight' that sought comprehensive reform in 2013, though he later emphasized that border security must be prioritized before considering pathways to legal status for undocumented immigrants. In healthcare, he was a vocal opponent of the Affordable Care Act and co-authored the Graham-Cassidy amendment to repeal it in favor of state block grants. Regarding the environment, he occasionally engaged in bipartisan climate change discussions early in his career but generally focused on domestic energy independence, supporting the expansion of nuclear power and traditional fossil fuel production.