Bio
Senator Lindsey Olin Graham is an American lawyer and politician. He has been serving as a senior U.S. Senator from South Carolina under the Republicans since 2003. He was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995.
He also served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He has recently served as the chair of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 2019 to 2021.
Graham was born in Central, South Carolina, on July 9, 1955. There, his Scots-Irish parents ran a bar and restaurant store. He graduated high school and enrolled at the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. During his service, Graham lost his parents.
Yet, he was allowed to enroll at the University of South Carolina. This would allow him to get closer to his orphaned sister. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 1977.
He earned his J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1981. He joined the U.S. Air Force the following year and began active duty. There, he worked as a military lawyer. From 1984 to 1988, he was transferred to Frankfurt, Germany, where he was the Air Force’s chief prosecutor.
Graham left active duty in 1989 and returned to South Carolina. He subsequently joined the South Carolina Air National Guard in the same year. But, Graham returned to active duty during the Gulf War from 1990 to 1991. There, he helped pilots with laws on wars. Graham served till 2015 and retired from the Air Force with the rank of Colonel.
