Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Dies At 82

Harry Reid, the Democrat who served as Senate majority leader from 2007 until 2015, passed away on Tuesday. He was 82 years old.

“I am heartbroken to announce the passing of my husband, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He died peacefully this afternoon, surrounded by our family, following a courageous, four-year battle with pancreatic cancer,” Reid’s widow Landra said in a statement obtained by CNN.

Reid served in Congress as a senator from Nevada from 1983 until he retired in 2017. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the following year in 2018, and he announced in 2019 that it had gone into remission.

President Joe Biden also paid tribute to Reid, describing him as one of “the all-time great Senate Majority Leaders in our history.”

The former President Barack Obama released a letter he had written to Reid before his death in which he said, “I wouldn’t have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support, and I wouldn’t have got most of what I got done without your skill and determination.”

“Harry Reid was one of the most amazing individuals I’ve ever met,” added Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “He was my leader, my mentor, one of my dearest friends.”

Reid was best known for using the “nuclear option” in 2013 when he led the charge to end the filibuster on executive branch nominees and judicial nominees other than to the Supreme Court. Last year, he said he “absolutely” does not regret changing the rules.

“I have no regret. It was the right thing to do,” he said. “And by the way, it’s not the first time the rules have been changed. They’ve been changed lots of times. It was time to do it again.”

Former President Bill Clinton praised Reid as “one of the most effective Senate leaders our country has ever known.”

“We will likely never see another public servant quite like him—in personality, command of strategy and tactics, and assuredness in marching to the beat of his own drum,” Clinton continued.

“Senator Harry Reid was a leader of immense courage and ferocious conviction who worked tirelessly to achieve historic progress for the American people,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). “Over more than four decades of public service, Senator Reid was guided always by his North Star: to improve the lives of working families like his own.”

While receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Nevada Democratic Party in 2019, Reid reflected on his life.

This piece was written by James Samson on December 29, 2021. It originally appeared in RedVoiceMedia.com and is used by permission.

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