On July 11, 2026, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) died at the age of 71. He is the first U.S. Senator from South Carolina to die in office since Olin D. Johnston (D-S.C.) died on April 18, 1965. He is also the fourth member of the U.S. Senate since 2013 to die in office and the sixth member of Congress to die during the 119th Congress. Graham was running for a fifth term, defeating five other opponents for the Republican nomination with 57% of the vote in June. As a result of his death, there is no Republican nominee for the seat.
Graham is the first senator to die during a re-election campaign since Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) died in 2002. The last Republican senator to die during their re-election campaign was Francis Case (R-S.D.) in 1962. Going back to 1918, Ballotpedia found that Graham is the fifth incumbent senator to die during their campaign. South Carolina is also the first state where more than one incumbent died during their re-election campaigns and had to be replaced. In 1954, Burnet R. Maybank (D-S.C.) died and was replaced as nominee by Edgar A. Brown (D-S.C.). Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) defeated Brown in a write-in campaign by a 26% margin.
