Lindsey Graham, the Republican who made foreign policy his No. 1 cause

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who represented South Carolina in the Senate since 2003, was one of the Republican Party’s most influential voices on foreign policy and one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies during the final years of his political career. He died at the age of 71 following a “brief and sudden illness,” his office reported.

A lawyer by trade and a former member of the U.S. Air Force Legal Corps, Graham began his political career in the South Carolina House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1995. In 2002, he was elected to the Senate, where he was reelected four times.

During more than two decades in the Senate, he established himself as one of the leading advocates of an interventionist foreign policy. He pushed for increased defense spending, supported U.S. military campaigns following the Sept. 11 attacks, and advocated for a firm stance against adversaries such as Russia and Iran. He was also a strong advocate for military support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion and made at least ten visits to Kiev since the start of the conflict, the most recent just a few days before his death.

Graham was also known for his strong support of Israel. Throughout his career, he championed a close alliance between Washington and Jerusalem, and in recent years, he called for tougher sanctions against Iran and for maintaining a policy of maximum pressure on the Iranian regime.

Although during the 2016 Republican primaries he was one of Donald Trump’s harshest critics and even ran for the party’s presidential nomination, over time he became one of Trump’s closest allies and a key advisor on national security and foreign policy. His proximity to the president allowed him to maintain strong influence within the Republican Party.