Martin Heinrich

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich remembered Lindsey Graham as a “dynamic and lovely person to be around.”

Graham, a South Carolina Republican, died on Saturday evening. He was 71.

The senator died of an aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to preliminary findings from the Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia, his office said. That is an aorta rupture stemming from hardening of his arteries.

Graham’s family “appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period,” according to a statement from his office.

“People know Lindsey Graham for his fiery arguments that would happen on the floor in the Senate or in the Judiciary Committee and that was one side of Lindsey Graham,” said Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat, in a phone interview. “But there was a whole other side that people don’t see, which is, when you’re not in the midst of a debate with him, where you’re on opposite sides of an issue, he’s a really dynamic and lovely person to be around.”

Graham was the first sitting U.S. senator to die in office since Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in 2023.

Graham had just returned from Ukraine and announced an agreement on Friday with the Trump administration to move forward on a package of Russia sanctions. The senator had been scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, according to The Associated Press.

On Sunday, New Mexico leaders remembered the four-term senator.

“Senator Graham spent his life serving our country, first in the Air Force and later in Congress,” Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., said in a statement. “He was committed to public service. My prayers are with Senator Graham’s family, friends, staff, and the people of South Carolina. May he rest in peace.”

‘You could take that to the bank’

Graham served in the U.S. Air Force Reserves as a colonel assigned as a senior instructor at the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s School. After leaving the Air Force in 1989, he joined the South Carolina Air National Guard, where he served until 1995.

During the first Gulf War, Graham served at McEntire Air (now Joint) National Guard Base in South Carolina as staff judge advocate where he prepared members for deployment to the Persian Gulf, according to the U.S. Air Force Academy.

In a statement, the New Mexico Republican Party said, in part, “His commitment to America's service members, veterans, and national security earned the respect of countless Americans.”

In 1994, Graham was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as the first Republican from the Third Congressional District of South Carolina since 1877. Eight years later, he was elected to the United States Senate. He would be reelected in 2008, 2014 and 2020.

Former U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said while he did not agree with Graham’s views, his death “will be a loss to the Republican caucus.”

At the time of his death, Graham was chairman of the Senate Budget Committee as well as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Heinrich said he had a “positive, constructive, cordial work relationship” with the senator, who he knew for over a decade.

When Graham made a commitment to something, “that commitment was gold,” Heinrich said.

“There are a lot of folks in the Senate who will say yes to something and then their staff will walk it back,” Heinrich said. “If he told you he was going to work with you, you could take back to the bank.”

A couple of issues the senators agreed on were placing sanctions on Russia as a result of its war with Ukraine — they cosponsored the Sanctioning Russia Act in 2025 — and wildlife.

“One of the things people didn’t realize about Lindsey was he was really supportive of wildlife conservation,” Heinrich said.

Heinrich said Graham was working with Heinrich and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., to reintroduce a bill to invest in proactive conservation work led by states, territories and tribal nations to support the long-term health of fish and wildlife and their habitats across the country.

“Even though what you see on TV (are) these fiery, passionate fights where we are often on completely opposite sides of a political spectrum,” Heinrich said, “there are a lot of very constructive, strong relationships across the aisle in Washington, D.C., and Senator Graham was one of those people who genuinely knew how to work across the aisle to get things done.”