South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham Dies at 71

Lindsey Graham, who represented South Carolina in the U.S. Senate for more than two decades, died last Saturday at age 71. The state must now organize a primary within one month to select a candidate for the November midterm elections. The South Carolina state house grounds contain memorials to both Confederate war dead and African American history.

A statue of former senator Strom Thurmond lists the names of his five children, including Essie Mae, whose mother was 15 when Thurmond impregnated her.

Graham was born in 1955 in Central, South Carolina, where his family operated a restaurant, bar and pool hall. He lived with his parents and younger sister in a single room behind the business. His mother died of Hodgkin's lymphoma, and months later his father died of a heart attack. Graham became legal guardian for his sister Darline, who was nearly nine years younger.

Graham earned a law degree from the University of South Carolina and served as a judge advocate general in the Air Force. He entered the U.S. House in 1994 and won election to the Senate in 2002, succeeding Thurmond. During his early Senate years, Graham worked across party lines on issues including immigration reform.

He formed a bipartisan group with senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain that focused on foreign policy.

Graham initially opposed Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican primaries. He later became one of Trump's most consistent Senate allies. On Tuesday, Graham's sister Darline was sworn in to complete the remainder of his Senate term.