Veteran US Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah dies at 88


By Lindsay Whitehurst | Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — Orrin G. Hatch, the longest-serving Republican senator in history and a fixture in Utah politics for more than four decades, has died at age 88.

The retired senator’s death on Saturday was announced in a statement from his foundation, which did not specify a cause.

A staunch conservative on most economic and social issues, he also partnered with Democrats several times during his long career on issues ranging from stem cell research to the rights of people with disabilities to expanding health insurance for kids. He formed friendships across the aisle, particularly with the late Democratic Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

President Joe Biden, who served with Hatch in the Senate for three decades, described the Republican lawmaker on Sunday as a fighter for causes he believed in, but with a softer side that included writing songs and poems that he shared with friends.

“Serving with Orrin, as I have for more than three decades, was seeing and appreciating both,” Biden said in a statement. “I saw that energetic and astute Orrin in the many battles we had over tax policy, the right of workers to join a union, and many others.”

Hatch championed Republican issues like limits on abortion and helped shape the US Supreme Court, including defending Justice Clarence Thomas against allegations of sexual harassment during confirmation hearings.

He later became an ally of Republican President Donald Trump, using his role as chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee to get a major rewrite of the US tax codes to the president’s desk. In return, Trump helped Hatch deliver on a key issue for Republicans in Utah with a controversial move to slash the size of two national monuments established by previous presidents.

Hatch retired in 2019. Trump encouraged him to run again, but the longtime senator reportedly faced a tough primary and vowed to withdraw. Hatch encouraged Republican Mitt Romney, a Trump critic, to run to replace him.

“Few men have made their mark on the Senate like he has,” Romney wrote in a tribute to his friend and predecessor, praising his “legislative vision and accomplishments.”

Former Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa issued a statement recalling Hatch’s help in securing conservative support for the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, which Hatch would later rank as one of his most significant achievements.

“Orrin was always a likable conservative, and until the arrival of the Trump administration, he was willing to work with liberals to find common ground and compromise,” Harkin said.

Utah Senator Mike Lee called Hatch “a friend, a mentor and an example to myself and many others.”

Hatch was noted for a parallel career as a singer and recording artist with themes from her religious faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He is survived by his wife, Elaine, and their six children.

Hatch was elected to the US Senate in 1976 and served seven terms to become the longest-serving senator in Utah history. He became president pro tempore of the Senate in 2015 when Republicans took control of the Senate. The position made him third in the line of presidential succession behind then-Vice President Joe Biden and the Speaker of the House. His tenure ranks him as the longest-serving Republican senator, behind several Democrats.

One issue Hatch returned to throughout his career was limiting or banning abortion, a position that put him at the center of one of the nation’s most controversial issues. He was the author of a variety of proposed “Hatch amendments” to the Constitution intended to decrease the availability of abortions.

In 1991, he became known as one of Thomas’s most vocal defenders against sexual harassment allegations by law professor Anita Hill. Hatch read “The Exorcist” aloud at confirmation hearings and suggested that Hill stole details from the book.

While unquestionably conservative, Hatch sometimes fell out with conservative colleagues, including then-President George W. Bush when Hatch pushed for federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

In 1997, Hatch joined Kennedy in sponsoring a $24 billion program for states to provide health insurance to children of low-income parents who don’t qualify for Medicaid.

“He was an example of a generation of legislators educated in the principles of courtesy and compromise, and he embodied those principles better than anyone else,” Hatch Foundation President A. Scott Anderson said in a statement. “In a divided nation, Orrin Hatch helped show us a better way.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, praised Hatch’s legislative acumen.

“Orrin’s decades of leadership fueled an endless catalog of significant legislative achievements and landmark confirmations,” McConnell said in a statement. “He entered the Senate as a young early conservative in the 1970s, when the modern conservative movement was in its infancy. He stayed true to his principles throughout his career.”

Hatch also helped push through legislation toughening laws against child pornography and illegal music downloading.

The music download problem was personal. A member of the faith widely known as Mormons, she often wrote religious songs and recorded music in her spare time as a way to unwind from the stress of life in Washington. Hatch earned around $39,000 in royalties from her songs in 2005.

One song, “Unspoken,” went platinum after being featured on “WOW Hits 2005,” a Christian pop music compilation.

In 2000, Hatch sought the Republican presidential nomination, saying he had more experience in Washington than his opponents and could work with Democrats. Hatch recognized that winning would be a long shot and dropped out of the race after getting just 1% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses. He supported George W. Bush.

He became a strong opponent of President Barack Obama’s 2009 health care law after walking out of early bipartisan talks on the legislation. At one point, he said of the legislation: “It’s 2,074 pages long. It’s enough to make you vomit.

Hatch faced a tough re-election battle from a conservative candidate in 2012, two years after a Tea Party wave ousted Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett. Both Bennett and Hatch voted for a bank bailout in 2008 that angered the far right.

Hatch put about $10 million into his 2012 run and worked to build support among Tea Party conservatives.

Hatch was used to playing tough: he learned to box as a kid in Pittsburgh to fend off attacks from bigger and older students. Unafraid to fight, he said that he always strove to quickly befriend those he argued with.

When Hatch announced that he would not seek re-election in 2018, he said that “every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves.”

After moving to Utah in the early 1970s, Hatch, a former bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ran for his first public office in 1976, narrowly defeating Democratic Sen. Frank Moss.

In 1982, he held off challenger Ted Wilson, the Democratic mayor of Salt Lake City, to win a second term by a solid margin.

He was never seriously challenged again.



Reference-www.mercurynews.com

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