Lindsey Graham’s death leaves South Carolina confronting complex legacy: ‘You loved him and you hated him’

The US state mourns its long-serving senator while Republicans scramble to choose a successor The South Carolina state house is a microcosm of the US’s contradictions. Outside there are memorials to the Confederate war dead and African American history. Below a statue of Strom Thurmond, a longtime US senator and racial segregationist, are the names of his five children including Essie Mae, whose mother, a Black maid, was 15 when Thurmond impregnated her. Thurmond died at the age of 100 in 2003; his successor, Lindsey Graham, a lifelong bachelor who never had children, died last Saturday aged 71. His sudden exit leaves a void not just in Washington but the state that molded Graham, elected him to the Senate four times and wrestled with his shape-shifting journey from Ronald Reagan Republican to Donald Trump sycophant. “I was shocked,” said Caleb Davis, 21, an air force enlistment candidate wandering in the state house grounds in Columbia on Tuesday. “He was our senator longer than I’ve been alive. He served us in the legacy of the great Strom Thurmond and whether I liked the man or his politics hasn’t got much to do with it. He was truly great and his shoes are gonna be