US senator Lindsey Graham’s preliminary cause of death is confirmed

US senator Lindsey Graham‘s preliminary cause of death has been confirmed after he died aged 71.

A preliminary report from the District of Columbia’s Office of the chief medical examiner found the South Carolina Republican died from “aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease”. The senator’s death certificate will remain pending until toxicological and microscopic testing has been completed.

Graham’s office announced yesterday (12 July) that he had died following a “brief and sudden illness”, while his family asked for privacy. Emergency responders were called to his Washington, D.C. home on Saturday (11 July) evening after reports of chest pain. According to dispatch audio reported by several US outlets, crews forced entry into the property before attempting CPR on a patient in cardiac arrest. Authorities have said there is no indication of foul play.

“He was like a member of the family to me, it’s very tough” – Donald Trump on Lindsey Graham’s death

Donald Trump said he had spoken to Graham shortly before his death after the senator returned from a trip to Ukraine.

“He sounded great actually, but he actually said he was tired,” Trump said during NBC’s Meet the Press.

The US president later added: “He was like a member of the family to me, it’s very tough.”

First elected to the Senate in 2002 after serving in the House of Representatives, Graham spent more than three decades in Congress and became one of the Republican Party’s most influential voices on foreign policy. After initially opposing Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, he later became one of the president’s closest allies and was seeking a fifth Senate term at the time of his death.

What was Lindsey Graham’s stance on LGBTQ+ rights?

Graham voted for the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, supported efforts to amend the US Constitution to ban same-sex marriage and voted against the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022. He also opposed the Equality Act, which would have expanded federal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and backed restrictions on transgender people serving in the US military.

Tributes came from political figures across the US and abroad. Senate majority leader John Thune described Graham as a “trusted adviser and colleague to me and many others, and numerous presidents and heads of state have relied on his counsel.”

Former US president Joe Biden said: “We disagreed often, and sometimes loudly,” but praised Graham’s belief in the “profound importance of public service”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also paid tribute, describing the senator as “a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer.”