ABOVE: Sen. Harry Reid, photo via President Barack Obama/Facebook.
Former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) died Dec. 28 at his home in Henderson, Nev., after a years-long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 82.
Reid was born in Searchlight, Nev., on Dec. 2, 1939.
The Nevada Democrat was the state’s lieutenant governor from 1971-1975.
Reid represented Nevada’s 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983-1987. He was in the U.S. Senate from 1987-2017, and was Senate majority leader from 2007-2015.
Reid played a leading role in securing the passage of the bill that repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 2010. Reid, among other things, championed the Affordable Care Act and presided over the Senate in 2013 when the Employment Non-Discrimination Act passed in a bipartisan vote.
The bill later died in a Republican-controlled House.
“I am heartbroken to announce the passing of my husband, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,” said Reid’s wife of 62 years, Landra Reid, in a statement. “He died peacefully this afternoon, surrounded by our family, following a courageous, four-year battle with pancreatic cancer.”
“We are so proud of the legacy he leaves behind both on the national stage and his beloved Nevada,” she added.
“I’ve had the honor of serving with some of the all-time great Senate majority leaders in our history. Harry Reid was one of them,” said President Biden in a statement. “And for Harry, it wasn’t about power for power’s sake. It was about the power to do right for the people.”
Former President Obama also mourned Reid.
“You were a great leader in the Senate, and early on you were more generous to me than I had any right to expect,” said Obama in a statement. “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.”
Silver State Equality, an LGBTQ rights group in Nevada, praised Reid as a “tireless fighter for all.”
“Senator Reid was a force to be reckoned with,” said the group on Twitter. “His decades of service to Nevada and the nation included passing the ACA, repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and ushering LGBTQ+ employment protections through the Senate.”
Charlotte Clymer, a transgender activist who is a U.S. Army veteran, in a tweet said Reid “had a backbone” and “didn’t shy away from a battle, and he won most of them, including passage of the Affordable Care Act.”
“He was a fighter, and we loved him for it,” tweeted Clymer. “May his memory be a blessing.”
https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1476009519834619904
