Lindsey Graham facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lindsey Graham
Official portrait, 2013
Chair of the Senate Budget Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2025
Preceded by	Sheldon Whitehouse
Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee
In office January 3, 2023 – January 3, 2025
Preceded by	Chuck Grassley
Succeeded by	Dick Durbin
Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee
In office February 3, 2021 – January 3, 2023
Preceded by	Bernie Sanders
Succeeded by	Chuck Grassley
Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee
In office January 3, 2019 – February 3, 2021
Preceded by	Chuck Grassley
Succeeded by	Dick Durbin
United States Senator from South Carolina
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2003 Serving with Tim Scott
Preceded by	Strom Thurmond
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 3rd district
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Butler Derrick
Succeeded by	Gresham Barrett
Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from the 2nd district
In office January 12, 1993 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	Lowell Ross
Succeeded by	Bill Sandifer III
Personal details
Born	Lindsey Olin Graham (1955-07-09) July 9, 1955 (age 69) Central, South Carolina, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Education	University of South Carolina (BA, JD)
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	United States Air Force
Years of service	1982–1989 (active) 1989–1995 (guard) 1995–2015 (reserve)
Rank	Colonel
Unit	U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps
Awards	Bronze Star Meritorious Service Medal

Lindsey Olin Graham (/ɡræm/; born July 9, 1955) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from South Carolina, a seat he has held since 2003. A member of the Republican Party, Graham chaired the Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 2019 to 2021.

Early life

Lindsey Olin Graham was born in Central, South Carolina, where his parents, Millie (Walters) and Florence James "F.J." Graham, ran a restaurant/bar/pool hall/liquor store, the Sanitary Cafe. His family is of Scots-Irish descent. After graduating from D. W. Daniel High School, Graham became the first member of his family to attend college, and joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. When he was 21, his mother died of Hodgkin's lymphoma, aged 52, and his father died 15 months later of a heart attack, aged 69. Because his then-13-year-old sister was left orphaned, the service allowed Graham to attend the University of South Carolina in Columbia so he could remain near home as his sister's legal guardian. During his studies, he became a member of the Pi Kappa Phi social fraternity.

He graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.A. in psychology in 1977, and from the University of South Carolina School of Law with a J.D. in 1981.

Military service

Most of his active duty during his military service happened from 1982 to 1988, when he served with the Judge Advocate General's Corps in the United States Air Force, as a defense attorney and then with the Air Force's chief prosecutor in Europe, based in West Germany. Later his entire service in the U.S. Air Force Reserve ran concurrently with his congressional career. He was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service in 2014 and held the rank of colonel.

Political career

Graham worked as a lawyer in private practice before serving one term in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995. He served four terms in the United States House of Representatives for South Carolina's 3rd congressional district from 1995 to 2003. In 2002, Graham won the U.S. Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican incumbent Strom Thurmond. He was reelected to a fourth term in 2020. In the Senate Graham advocates for strong national defense and aggressive interventionist foreign policy. Initially, he was known for his willingness to be bipartisan and work with Democrats on issues like campaign finance reform, cap and trade, immigration reform, and judicial nominees. He has criticized the Tea Party movement, arguing for a more inclusive Republican Party.

Graham sought the Republican nomination for president between June and December 2015, dropping out before the 2016 Republican primaries began. He was an outspoken critic of Donald Trump's 2016 candidacy and repeatedly said he did not support Trump; in particular, he took issue with Trump's comments on Graham's close friend, Senator John McCain. After a March 2017 meeting with Trump, Graham became a staunch ally of his, often issuing public statements in his defense. His reversal caught both parties by surprise and sparked media speculation. He became chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in January 2019, and led the U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed in October 2020.

On January 14, 2025, Graham announced lead officials for his 2026 reelection campaign, including the former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party and Governor Henry McMaster's campaign manager.

Political positions

Graham with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 18, 2024

Graham visits Kibbutz Kfar Aza in Israel on January 4, 2024

Immigration reform

In July 2010, Graham suggested that U.S. citizenship as a birthright guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution should be amended, and that any children born to illegal immigrants in the United States should be considered illegal immigrants.

Gun rights

In 2022, Graham became one of ten Republican senators to support a bipartisan agreement on gun control, which included a red flag provision, a support for state crisis intervention orders, funding for school safety resources, stronger background checks for buyers under the age of 21, and penalties for straw purchases.

Health care

Graham opposed President Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in December 2009, and against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Graham is a cosponsor of the Healthy Americans Act.

Climate change

In 2020, Graham sponsored the Growing Climate Solutions Act, a bill that would make it simpler for farmers to sell carbon credits on existing carbon trading markets in California and in the Northeast.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko presents the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise to Graham, December 30, 2016

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen meets with senators Graham and McCain, June 2016

Taxation

Although Graham signed Grover Norquist's Taxpayer Protection Pledge in June 2012, he went on record supporting the closure of tax loopholes without compensating decreases in other tax revenue, saying, "We're so far in debt that if you don't give up some ideological ground, the country sinks."

Trade

The Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies identifies Graham, during his U.S. House and U.S. Senate tenure, as having a mostly protectionist and pro-subsidies voting record.

Personal life

Graham helped raise his sister, Darline Graham Nordone, after the deaths of his mother and father, which occurred within 15 months of each other, leaving the two without parents when Graham was 22 and she was 13. Graham has said that his parents' early deaths made him mature more quickly, and Nordone, who introduced her brother at his 2016 announcement of his candidacy for president, said she hoped to be with him on the campaign trail frequently to show voters his softer side. "He's kind of like a brother, a father and a mother rolled into one," she said. "I've always looked up to Lindsey."

Having never married or had children, Graham has said, "I never found time to meet the right girl, or the right girl was smart enough not to have time for me." According to his memoir, while in law school, he had a girlfriend named Debbie, and two more during his time in the Air Force in Germany: a JAG officer named Carol who later served on Colin Powell's staff, and a flight attendant named Sylvia, whom he considered proposing to. He has denied being gay.

Graham lives in Seneca, South Carolina. A Southern Baptist, he is a member of the Corinth Baptist Church.

Electoral history

*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1994, write-ins received 13 votes. In 2000, Natural Law candidate LeRoy J. Klein received 1,122 votes and write-ins received 33 votes. George Brightharp ran under both the Democratic and United Citizens Parties and received 2,253 votes on the United Citizen line.

Primary elections

See also

In Spanish: Lindsey Graham para niños

• Republican Party presidential candidates, 2016