Nancy Mace reacts to Lindsey Graham’s sudden death, South Carolina plans replacement

South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace said she and other members of Congress were "in a state of shock" after Sen. Lindsey Graham died Saturday evening, immediately opening a fight over who will carry his influence in Republican foreign-policy politics and who will fill his Senate seat. Graham was 71.

Graham died after what his office called a "brief and sudden illness," just days after returning from Ukraine and a day before he was scheduled to appear on NBC's Meet the Press. Emergency personnel also responded to a cardiac-arrest call at his Capitol Hill home Saturday night, though no official cause of death was released. The South Carolinian had been one of Washington's most durable Republican voices, elected to the Senate in 2002 and reelected in 2008, 2014 and 2020 after serving in the U.S. House from 1995 to 2003.

Tributes began pouring in from American and foreign leaders. President Donald Trump said he had spoken with Graham Saturday night and called him "one of the greatest people and senators I have ever known," then ordered U.S. flags lowered to half-staff in Graham's honor until Saturday evening. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Benjamin Netanyahu and Isaac Herzog were among the foreign leaders who reacted, underscoring how far Graham's relationships reached beyond South Carolina and how much space his death leaves in Republican debates over Ukraine and broader foreign policy.

The succession fight now shifts to Columbia and Washington. South Carolina law allows Gov. Henry McMaster to appoint a temporary replacement, while CNBC reported the state will hold a special Republican primary on Aug. 11 and open filing on July 21 to choose a nominee for the November ballot. Mace has been floated as a possible candidate, and Charleston Mayor William S. Cogswell Jr. said Graham had championed the deepening of Charleston Harbor. Democratic Senate candidate Annie Andrews also offered condolences and urged South Carolinians to set aside partisanship, as the state begins sorting out who inherits Graham's seat and the political ground he occupied for more than two decades.