Senator Lindsey Graham, who was a leading voice in US foreign policy in recent decades, died suddenly on Saturday evening at age 71. The South Carolina Republican had just returned to Washington from Ukraine, where he had continued his advocacy for increased US support for the country’s fight against Russia’s invasion. Graham, who appeared at the Atlantic Council in 2015 to deliver the first foreign policy speech of his presidential campaign, was one of Congress’s most prominent hawks across eight years in the House and twenty-three in the Senate. Below, members of the Atlantic Council network share their remembrances.
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Kay Bailey Hutchison: “One of the most consequential senators of our time”
Daniel Fried: Graham helped turn the tide for Ukraine
John Herbst: “A far-sighted and stalwart defender of American national interests”
Leslie Shedd: A mix of humor and tenacity
“One of the most consequential senators of our time”
Lindsey Graham was one of the most consequential senators of our time. He was the Senate leader in security and foreign policy. I traveled with him on many congressional visits to foreign political and military leaders, where he was always effective in communicating America’s policies. He championed NATO, knowing that having a strong Alliance expanded and strengthened US leadership of the free world.
Lindsey was scary smart and had a quick wit that made him respected by all and loved by most. I don’t know anyone who knew him who couldn’t tell a “Lindsey story.”
His presence in the Senate will be missed for years to come.
— Kay Bailey Hutchison is a former US ambassador to NATO, a former US senator for Texas, and a member of the Atlantic Council Board of Directors.
He helped turn the tide for Ukraine
Lindsey Graham’s final acts on Earth included a supportive trip to Ukraine, whose cause of survival in freedom he had championed from the start. His support for Ukraine—dating back to when he and Senator John McCsin were a team in advancing the free world—may at times have seemed a lost cause with the Trump administration. Certainly, Graham took his share of criticism for his closeness to President Donald J. Trump, whom he had once excoriated but later fell behind. But Graham never gave up in trying to turn Trump toward support for Ukraine and freedom.
Graham lived to see such a turn. Trump rebuffed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s blandishments in their July 4 phone call and went on to accept a NATO Summit statement with supportive language on Ukraine. Better yet, Trump had a warm meeting at the Ankara summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, going so far as to offer Ukraine the ability to produce Patriot missiles. That’s a lot, especially if the missile deal and other deals like drone production cooperation and delivery of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles go through.
Graham lived to see Ukraine perhaps turn the tide of war and the US administration turn the tide of icy indifference. He had something to do with both. That’s a legacy to honor.
—Daniel Fried is the Weiser family distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former US assistant secretary of state for Europe.
“A far-sighted and stalwart defender of American national interests”
Graham was a far-sighted and stalwart defender of American national interests in changing and complicated circumstances. He recognized early on that the Kremlin’s aggression in Ukraine in 2014 was a clear threat to the United States, and that the US should provide the support necessary to ensure Putin’s effort to take effective control of that country failed.
This was a politically easy position for him to advocate ten years ago, with President Barack Obama in the White House, but far less so with the emergence of powerful movement in the Republican Party oblivious to the fact that Russia, working with China, considers the US its principal adversary, or that the US alliance and economic partnership with Europe are great contributors to US security and prosperity. Yet Graham never wavered. He forged a close relationship with Trump and provided critical support and advice to the president that offset the naive counsel coming from influential Republican circles who sought to end all US support for Ukraine and to lessen the US tie to NATO.
His death comes as the White House has acknowledged the strengthening Ukrainian position in the war and has agreed to move the sanctions package against Moscow that Graham has advocated for over a year.
—John E. Herbst is the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a former US ambassador to Ukraine.
A mix of humor and tenacity
Lindsey Graham was the first member of Congress I ever had the opportunity to work for. I was an intern in his Anderson office in 2000 when I was a student at Clemson University and he was still in the House of Representatives. That experience paved the way for my future jobs on Capitol Hill and to the cherished career I have now.
In my home state of South Carolina, he was an institution. Everyone knew him and everyone had an opinion on him—they either loved him or they hated him. But no matter what you thought or whether you agreed with him, no one could ever deny that he was a master politician. He would criss-cross the state, kissing babies and cutting ribbons at business openings. And then he would go on Meet the Press and cut down every one of his opponent’s arguments. He was never afraid to tell truth to power—or to his constituents. But he always knew when to pick his battles.
I think there were two things that made Lindsey so effective. First, he used his humor to charm you into agreeing with him—even if you didn’t really want to. And he used that same humor to skewer his opponents, sometimes with just a single sentence. Second, he was 100 percent dedicated to his country and his cause. Once he got behind something, he wouldn’t stop until he got it done. You saw that with the Russian sanctions bill. He never let it go and worked tirelessly to get the White House behind it. Now Congress needs to pass it in order to honor his legacy.
—Leslie Shedd is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a former congressional aide, most recently for the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
He will be “long remembered by Ukrainians for his steadfast and passionate advocacy”
Senator Lindsay Graham was not only a true American patriot and statesman but a champion of freedom who cared deeply about the plight of men and women struggling for their fundamental human rights around the world. Time and again, he spoke out. He chaired a December 2025 hearing that spotlighted the abduction and kidnapping of Ukrainian children by Russia. And at the Munich Security Conference in February 2026, he addressed a massive protest rally calling for Iran’s freedom.
Graham will especially be long remembered by Ukrainians for his steadfast and passionate advocacy for the US to stand with Ukraine and to provide Kyiv with weapons so that Ukraine could defend itself against Russian aggression. He argued that Ukraine’s freedom and sovereignty have direct bearing on US national security interests. What happens in Ukraine impacts us.
As a co-sponsor of the “Sanctioning Russia Act,” he advocated for making Moscow accountable for its aggression and sought to diminish Russia’s capability to continue to wage a war of aggression on Ukraine.
As senator, he was also well known for his support of collective defense, in particular the NATO Alliance, and the effective use of both military and humanitarian aid, as in the April 2024 national security supplemental spending law providing aid to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel. He was committed to the idea of peace through strength and supported robust efforts to apply US military and diplomatic leverage to international challenges. I had the privilege of meeting him on several occasions. In July 2015, he came to the Atlantic Council’s headquarters and delivered a foreign policy speech in our presidential candidate series, “America’s Role in the World.”
Graham’s legacy is grounded in a strong US defense and a willingness to use it when necessary, as well as the importance of democratic values, alliances, and bipartisanship.
—Paula J. Dobriansky is the vice chair of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a former US under secretary of state for global affairs.