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Lindsay Graham’s Last Waltz

The death of the senator from South Carolina closes the chapter on a vanishing breed of politician who won power through handshakes, favors, late nights, and relentless retail politics instead of viral clips and social media warfare. His successor will inherit Graham’s seat, but not the political ecosystem that made his career possible.

Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Graham speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine, August 2024. Photo: Vitalii Nosach/Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images
Peter Hamby
July 13, 2026

Lindsey Graham and John McCain were laughing their asses off together in the back of a South Carolina campaign bus in 2006, and Trey Walker couldn’t figure out what was so funny. McCain was visiting the state campaigning on behalf of Walker’s boss, Henry McMaster—then South Carolina’s attorney general, now its governor—and Graham had been tagging along with his bestie from the Senate.