Former Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), one of the Senate’s longest-serving senators and a Democrat who played a central role in enacting former President Obama’s biggest legislative accomplishments, died Tuesday at 82 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, The New York Times reports.
The legendary senator had been treated for pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed in 2018, but lived to see his public career memorialized earlier this month when the name of the Las Vegas airport was changed to Harry Reid International.
His death was confirmed in statements from Gov. Steve Sisolak of Nevada and Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader.
“Sen. Reid has never forgotten who he is or where he came from,” Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said. “He has spent his life and his career uplifting Nevada to what it has become today.”
Reid’s lengthy service started at age 28 in 1968 when he was elected to the Nevada Assembly and served two terms. He was also Nevada’s lieutenant governor, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission who played a major role in driving the mob out of Las Vegas casinos, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1987, rising to the role of Senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015.
Reid is credited with working to secure the Senate Democrats’ 60-vote majority to pass “Obamacare”, including a vote from Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who had endorsed Arizona’s John McCain over Obama in the 2008 election.
Reid’s death was also announced by longtime political reporter Jon Ralston, who called Reid “probably the most important elected official in Nevada history.”
BREAKING: Harry Reid, probably the most important elected official in Nevada history, has died at 82.
My condolences to his family and friends.
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) December 29, 2021
