Orrin Hatch, longest-serving GOP senator in U.S. history, dead at 88

(Image credit: Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 24 April 2022

Former Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who served in the U.S. Senate from 1977 to 2019, died Saturday at the age of 88, The New York Times reports.

Hatch was the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history, with a tenure of exactly 42 years. He is the sixth-longest-serving overall, behind Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.); Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii); Strom Thurmond (S.C.), who was a Democrat for the first 10 years of his 47-year tenure; Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).

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During his seven terms, Hatch helped pass the Americans With Disabilities Act, co-wrote the Children's Health Insurance Program, and played a key role in passing former President Donald Trump's tax cuts. He also briefly ran for president in 2000. Trump awarded Hatch the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018. The following year, Hatch retired from the Senate and was replaced by Sen. Mitt Romney (R).

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Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.

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