Former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, who represented Arizona in the halls of Congress for more than 25 years, has died at the age of 84.
In a statement, Kyl’s family said he died due to complications from a neurological disease.
“We know that Jon belonged to all of Arizona, a state he loved and explored with vigor, curiosity, and wonder. Serving his state and nation in Congress was a privilege and responsibility he honored and respected. We are grateful for his full and meaningful public life,” his family said in a statement early Thursday morning.
Kyl passed away less than a year after he stepped back from public life due to the diagnosis.
“My family and I now head down a path filled with moments of joy and increasing difficulties,” Kyl said in a statement at the time. “I am grateful beyond expression for their love and support, in these coming days as in all the days of my life. Despite this diagnosis, I remain a very fortunate man.”
Kyl’s legacy
Kyl, an Arizona Republican, was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986 and served in that chamber for nearly a decade before he won election to the U.S. Senate in 1994. He rose through the party ranks, eventually becoming one of the highest ranking Arizonans in Congress when he was named the Senate minority whip in 2007.
He left office in 2013 and became a lobbyist before briefly returning to the Senate after former Gov. Doug Ducey appointed Kyl to replace his former seatmate, Sen. John McCain, who passed away in 2018.
An attorney by training, he was known as a policy expert and behind-the-scenes force during his time in Congress, credited with shaping Republican policy goals during his time in the Senate.
“Jon never sought the limelight. He was always the workhorse,” former Sen. Jeff Flake, who served alongside Kyl in Congress as a member of the House and succeeded him in the Senate.
Kyl worked as an attorney specializing in water law prior to entering Congress and was involved in shaping the state’s Groundwater Management Act. He is also credited with shaping water policy that has affected the state and nation in Congress. That includes pushing through the landmark Arizona Water Settlements Act in 2004, which settled water disputes between some tribes and the government, and other water settlements.
“And that just personified him, working on those issues that weren’t sexy or anything, but just required a lot of work,” Flake said. “That was Jon.”
He is the namesake for Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy and the University of Arizona’s Kyl Institute for National Security.
During his time in the Senate, Kyl was a member of the Senate Finance Committee and advocated for a number of conservative fiscal policies, including the end of the death tax, and a partial extension of the Bush tax cuts.
Kyl was also a staunch conservative, receiving a 96.6 score from the American Conservative Union.
But, before returning to Congress in 2018, he decried the extreme partisanship taking hold in Washington.
“One could say there’s a lack of leadership,” he told KJZZ. “In the past, leaders were able to overcome some of the more base instincts of the pure partisans. Today, it is more difficult to do that.”
He said those partisans can come from the right and the left.
“I’m not speaking here of people with strong ideologies. There’s a big difference between having a strong ideology, either on the left or the right, and being a partisan politician,” Kyle said. “And until the people punish the pure partisans, I think that will continue.”
The Kyl family said memorial services will be announced at a later date.
/ kyl.senate.gov
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