Former U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has died.
Hatch, 88, served in the Senate from 1977 until 2019. He passed away in Salt Lake City.
In a press release, The Heritage Foundation did not list a cause of death.
As CNN reports:
“A man of wisdom, kindness, character, and compassion, Orrin G. Hatch was everything a United States Senator should be,” said A. Scott Anderson, chairman of the Hatch Foundation. “He exemplified a generation of lawmakers brought up on the principles of comity and compromise, and he embodied those principles better than anyone. In a nation divided, Orrin Hatch helped show us a better way by forging meaningful friendships on both sides of the aisle.”
Hatch developed a reputation as one of the most conservative U.S. senators — and one of the most effective. In 2017, he played an instrumental role shepherding President Trump's tax reform bill through the legislative process.
Hatch's retirement paved the way for Mitt Romney's return to politics as Utah's junior United States senator.
CNN adds:
At the time of Hatch's retirement announcement, then-White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump was “very sad to see Senator Hatch leave.
“Hatch spoke at the time about growing partisanship in Congress.
“My heart is heavy because it aches for the times when we actually lived up to our reputation as the world's greatest deliberative body. It longs for the days in which Democrats and Republicans would meet on middle ground rather than retreat to partisan trenches,” Hatch said in a farewell speech on the Senate floor in December 2018.
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