In February, Politico asked Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina, what he wanted his political legacy to be. “That I spoke up, shared my thoughts, creatively put together coalitions that moved the ball,” he said. Mr Graham was gearing up for what was expected to be a smooth re-election campaign in November, having held his Senate seat since 2003. When the journalist noted that Mr Graham had already had a long career in Washington, he pushed back, saying it was “not long enough”.
Five months later, in the early hours of July 12th, Mr Graham’s office announced that he had died unexpectedly from “a sudden illness” at the age of 71. The news adds fresh uncertainty to the questions swirling over the Senate’s future. Democrats are battling to regain control of Congress’s upper chamber in the midterm elections. A symbolic shift is already under way, with Mitch McConnell, Republicans’ former leader of the Senate, in hospital. Perhaps more than any other senator, however, it is Mr Graham who represents the arc of his party, from rebuking Donald Trump to subverting old principles in service of a new MAGA era.