{"id":7337,"date":"2026-07-13T22:36:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=7337"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:36:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:36:51","slug":"what-to-know-about-lindsey-grahams-passing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=7337","title":{"rendered":"What to know about Lindsey Graham\u2019s passing"},"content":{"rendered":"

What it changes about the Senate and November\u2019s midterm elections, and what it doesn\u2019t.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Senate Majority Leader John Thune mourns Lindsey Graham<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
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Notes and flowers outside the office of the late senator Lindsey Graham on Capitol Hill on Monday. (AP Photo\/Mariam Zuhaib)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

It is rare that a sitting senator suddenly dies in office. And rarer still for it to be such a powerful senator. Lindsey Graham chaired or served on committees overseeing the budget and Justice Department. And he had President Donald Trump\u2019s ear after turning from a fierce critic to all-around supporter.<\/p>\n

Graham\u2019s death Saturday doesn\u2019t change which party is in control of the Senate. It could, in the short term, make it harder for Trump and Republicans to accomplish their priorities ahead of crucial elections this November. And Graham\u2019s death, along with the lengthy hospitalization of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), also underscores an aging Congress<\/a> that voters say they\u2019re increasingly unhappy about.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know about all this.<\/p>\n

There are 100 seats in the Senate, and Republicans have held 53 of them for the first year and a half of Trump\u2019s second administration. That tight margin is now even tighter. With Graham\u2019s death and McConnell\u2019s hospitalization, Republicans are down to 51 votes. But Republicans are moving quickly to get a temporary replacement for Graham sworn in. South Carolina\u2019s Republican governor appointed Graham\u2019s sister, Darline Graham Nordone<\/a>, who could be sworn in soon.<\/p>\n

This is a very busy time for Senate Republicans<\/a>, who want to show they can govern before a number of them face voters in November in elections that could switch the Senate majority to Democrats.<\/p>\n

The Senate still has to approve defense spending, spending for the whole of government (a shutdown in the fall is possible). Republican senators also want to approve Trump\u2019s nominees for major positions in government, including the Justice Department and the head of intelligence agencies, plus take potential votes on cryptocurrency, regulating college athletics and more funding for the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

Even when Republicans had a slightly larger majority, Vice President JD Vance has had to serve as a tiebreaker vote, including when three Republicans broke with Trump on his signature tax legislation last summer.<\/p>\n

Now they can afford even less dissension. It\u2019s not clear when McConnell will return.<\/p>\n

Faced with the possibility of his party losing control of Congress for his final two years in office, Trump is pushing hard for Republicans to pass controversial legislation that would dramatically change how Americans vote<\/a> in November. It has been stuck in the Senate for a while, where Republicans can\u2019t get past a Democratic filibuster. (A filibuster requires 60 votes to overcome.)<\/p>\n

Graham was a big proponent of trying to find a way to pass this legislation, and so Trump just lost a key ally in the Senate.<\/p>

Read more McConnell took a photo with that day\u2019s newspaper. The internet suspects AI.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big blow to the Save America Act, let me tell you,\u201d Trump told NBC News over the weekend, saying that he had talked to Graham hours before he died and that Graham had sounded promising on finding a way to get the bill passed.<\/p>\n

Foreign policy is where Graham sometimes differed with Trump \u2014 and where Graham had a major impact.<\/p>\n

The day before he died, Graham was in Ukraine, where he spoke of a promising deal to get the United States to help Ukraine more in its years-long fight to stop Russia from taking over the country.<\/p>\n

On Ukraine, Graham was seen as a Trump whisperer<\/a> who could bring a sometimes skeptical president around to funding Ukraine\u2019s fight against Russia. That\u2019s a bipartisan priority in Washington, but without Graham continually talking to Trump about it, Ukraine\u2019s standing with the U.S. is a little more uncertain now.<\/p>\n

South Carolina was not on many Democrats\u2019 radar until Graham died. He easily won reelection six years ago despite polls showing a Democrat running a very close race against him.<\/p>\n

But suddenly, his seat is open in a year when Trump is very unpopular and polls show Democrats across the country very motivated to vote. Democrats already have a candidate, Annie Andrews, and there is expected to be a very competitive primary<\/a> next month for the Republican nominee to replace Graham.<\/p>\n

But Republicans still have the strong upper hand in South Carolina. It\u2019s a red state, and Trump is expected to weigh in with his valuable endorsement that could take the competitiveness out of a primary. Democrats have also been focused for months on trying to unseat Republicans in other states to win control of the Senate<\/a>, including Texas, Iowa, Ohio and Alaska. They\u2019d be starting from ground zero in South Carolina.<\/p>\n

Amber Phillips<\/i><\/a> writes <\/i>The 5-Minute Fix newsletter<\/i><\/a>, a quick analysis of the day\u2019s biggest political news. <\/i>Send her an email here<\/i><\/a>, or <\/i>ask a question<\/i><\/a> that could be featured in an upcoming newsletter. <\/i><\/p>

Read more Sen. Rick Scott wants senators to work harder<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What it changes about the Senate and November\u2019s midterm elections, and what it doesn’t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat to know about Lindsey Graham\u2019s passing - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=7337\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What to know about Lindsey Graham\u2019s passing - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What it changes about the Senate and November\u2019s midterm elections, and what it doesn't.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=7337\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-13T22:36:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/79d51376cfbec2d9cac454ccae74e127-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1706\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7337#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7337\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"What to know about Lindsey Graham\u2019s passing\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-13T22:36:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7337\"},\"wordCount\":856,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7337#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/f38c2c61fd4725252d537e3a4d5132ea-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7337#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7337\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7337\",\"name\":\"What to know about Lindsey Graham\u2019s passing - 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