A Senate without Lindsey Graham

When the Senate Judiciary Committee gaveled in on Wednesday, several seats were empty as members came and went. But only one seat had a bouquet of white roses next to it. It was the chair of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

“I’m going to cherish my memories of both our fierce partisan battles and our landmark bipartisan agreements,” Ranking Member Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said at the hearing, where he and other lawmakers examined President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, Todd Blanche.

Graham’s sudden death on Saturday after a cardiac emergency comes at a critical moment for colleagues in Congress and allies abroad. As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Graham navigated two recent reconciliation bills codifying the Republican agenda under President Trump and was rallying support for a third. As a committed supporter of aid for Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression, Graham was also working on legislation to increase financial pressure on Russia. While Graham’s death means the loss of an advocate for the issues he championed, colleagues and observers say the Senate has also lost a legislator with a knack for bipartisan dealmaking.

“He was someone who was integral across a number of committees on a number of [highly] salient issues of importance to the leadership in trying to propel those issues forward,” said Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a professor of political science at George Washington University.

For the Republican Party, the immediate problem posed by Graham’s death is his absence on key Senate committees where the GOP holds a slim majority. Without him, some committees—Budget, for example—have dropped down to a tie. Others, such as Judiciary, maintain a one- or two-vote lead. And in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of Defense, the additional absence of Chairman Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., gives the Democratic members a one-person lead.

“They [the Appropriations Subcommittee] haven’t moved any of these spending bills for next year out of the committee, so this is just one more problem,” said Binder. “Lindsey Graham’s demise and McConnell’s absence—they are not the cause of the stalemate, but they’ve made it just a little bit stickier.”

Binder noted that Graham was known for his cross-aisle friendships. He had a special interest in foreign policy, national security, Ukraine, NATO, and Russia—topics benefiting from bipartisan support. He also displayed a willingness to vote for Democratic appointments. Graham voted to appoint Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, for example, and more recently he supported multiple nominees from former President Joe Biden.

Aside from pointing out his willingness to work across the aisle, Graham’s colleagues also noted the personal warmth and humor he could bring into a room.

“I was no stranger to being the butt of his jokes,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said on the Senate floor Monday. “Sen. Graham loved to tell people how frugal I was and that if I were to ever open my billfold, dust and moths would come out of it.”

Although Graham is absent from the Senate, his colleagues hope to finish what he started with increased sanctions on Russia for its war on Ukraine.

Twenty-six senators from both sides of the aisle on Tuesday introduced a sanctions package on Russia. The bill updates one Graham introduced in April 2025. It would make sanctions on Russia mandatory rather than as punishments for not participating in peace talks with Ukraine. It also calls on the White House to impose tariffs on buyers of Russian energy, such as China. In Ukraine on Friday, Graham announced the White House had agreed to that plan, and he said he hoped the Senate would pass it soon.

Republican Ohio Congressman Mike Turner, who had joined Graham in a visit to Ukraine earlier this month, on Sunday told CBS’ Face the Nation that allies in Europe saw Graham as “someone who was willing to stand up and say, “You’re not alone. America is with you.”

Another of Graham’s legislative priorities is less likely to receive bipartisan support: nationwide protections for the unborn beginning at 15 weeks gestation. Kelsey Pritchard with SBA Pro-Life America said that after Graham’s Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act failed in 2013, he kept talking about the issue.

“He continued to make the point that … if the baby in the womb is a baby, then we need to protect that baby,” Pritchard said.

Graham went on to introduce the bill five more times.

For now, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has appointed Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to complete his term in the Senate. This means Nordone can vote and receive committee assignments in Graham’s place. Nordone is the first sister to get a special appointment to fill a vacancy. Typically, the role is filled by a spouse, but Graham was unmarried. Nordone has so far not indicated whether she intends to run for office beyond her appointment, which expires in January.

Randy Page, a former Republican political adviser in South Carolina, says McMaster’s appointment of Nordone gives other candidates running to replace Lindsey Graham in November a level playing field. “I don’t think he really wanted to give someone a leg up, you know, to where they would have the power of incumbency in the snap primary that’ll be held this August,” he said. Filing to run in the special primary opens July 21, the second Tuesday after Graham’s death.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott announced on Wednesday that Graham’s funeral in Washington will not take place this week, due to scheduling complications for world leaders who plan to attend. He said a service will likely take place in the National Cathedral, with a separate service to take place in South Carolina.

Reflecting further on Graham’s loss, Binder said that politicians who were problem-solvers used to be called “work horses,” distinct from show horses. Graham was a bit of both, she said, but heavy on the work horse.

“I don’t often say that a senator’s retirement or a senator’s demise is a big loss for the institution,” said Binder. “But in this world of pretty polarized parties and factions within the Republican Party, he managed to keep his feet productively in pretty contentious policy issues and it helped to find a way to solve them. There just are not a lot of problem-solvers left in Congress generally.”