Former Sen. Jim Jeffords, who switched control of the Senate in 2001, dies at age 80

Former Sen. Jim Jeffords, who switched control of the Senate in 2001, dies at age 80
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Former Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont, the man who rocked the political world in 2001 when he left the Republican Party and flipped control of the Senate to the Democrats, has died at age 80, the Burlington Free Press reports.

The newspaper also reports that at the time of his retirement from the Senate in 2006, Jeffords was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, and since then he has been cared for at a facility near Washington, D.C.

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