Richard Lugar, former GOP senator from Indiana, dies

Richard Lugar, a longtime Republican senator from Indiana, died on Sunday at age 87. He was undergoing treatment at Inova Heart and Vascular Institute in Virginia for a rare neurological disorder called chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, the Lugar Center in Washington said in a statement. The former Rhodes Scholar was a leading Republican voice on foreign policy during his 36 years in the Senate. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb ordered flags in the state flown at half-staff until Lugar’s funeral, which has not yet been announced. He said Lugar was “an always faithful servant to the highest ideals in every walk of his incredible life.”

Lugar collaborated with Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., to start a program that helped destroy thousands of former Soviet nuclear weapons after the Cold War. About 7,600 Soviet nuclear warheads were deactivated, and more than 900 intercontinental ballistic missiles were destroyed by the time Lugar left office in 2013. He served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for decades, twice as chairman, where he helped steer arms reduction pacts for Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. He ran for president in 1996. He withdrew a year into the race after failing to win any convention delegates, but not before making prescient warnings about the threat of terrorism before the 9/11 attacks.

“Lugar was a leader not only in the Senate but also on the world stage, where he worked tirelessly to bring pressure to end apartheid in South Africa and enforce treaties that destroyed Soviet weapons of mass destruction,” Vice President Mike Pence, a former governor of Indiana, said in a statement.

Lugar is survived by his wife, Charlene, and four sons, Mark, Bob, John, and David.