Hatch was also Utah’s longest-serving senator. He was elected for the first time in 1976 and served until his retirement in 2019.
Hatch, the long-serving Republican senator from Utah, died on Saturday in Salt Lake City at the age of 88. According to the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation, his death came at the end of a protracted illness.
He was the longest-serving Republican senator in history when he announced his retirement in January 2019 at the end of his final term in the Senate, after 42 years in the chamber.
By the organization, he died in the company of his family. At this moment, there is no information about the cause of death.
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Sen. Orrin Hatch embodied what it means to be an American, according to Matt Sandgren, executive director of the Hatch Foundation, in a statement. “Senator Orrin G. Hatch embodied the American Dream in everything he did. As the son of a carpenter and plaster lather, he overcame the hardships of his upbringing to become the first African-American senator in history.
Hatch, on the other hand, was the state’s senator for the longest period. Although he was first elected to the office in 1976, he announced in January of this year that he would be resigning from it.
According to him, retirement is coming because “every skilled warrior knows when to hang up the gloves,” as he stated in a video posted online.
President Joe Biden, one of Hatch’s fellow Senators, referred to him as “quite simply an American original,” according to Hatch.
According to President Joe Biden, “He was the fighter who carried with him the memories of his modest origins near Pittsburgh, who never humored a bully, and who never shrank from a confrontation.” “The young man who, upon receiving his degree from Brigham Young University, became the first member of his family to graduate college; the young lawyer who built a successful law practice; and the Senator who sprinted from meeting to the meeting because there was so much to do — indeed, when Senator Hatch retired, he had sponsored or co-sponsored more legislation than any other Senator at the time.”
Hatch was born at Pennsylvania’s Homestead Park in 1934.
Hatch grew raised in a “ramshackle house” during the Great Depression, but he went on to serve as chairman of three Senate committees and have an impact on legislation on a wide range of problems.
Hatch graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1959 and from the University of Pittsburgh with a law degree in 1962, respectively. In 1969, he went to the state of Utah.
In a Twitter message, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox expressed his thoughts and prayers for the Hatch family.
In the words of Republican Cox, ‘His legacy of public service has influenced our state and the entire nation.”
Hatch was a long-time member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he served as a bishop.
In 1976, he narrowly defeated Democratic Sen. Frank Moss, and in 1982, he defeated Democratic Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson to gain re-election to a second term in the legislature. After it, he didn’t encounter any significant pushback against his policies.
After losing to George W. Bush in the Iowa caucuses, Hatch decided not to run for president again in 2000. He instead supported Bush’s opponent, former Senator Orrin Hatch. As reported at the time, he said that “it would probably take that to elect me” when he announced his candidacy for President.
Hatch was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Donald Trump in November of last year.
During the ceremony, Trump remarked about Hatch, saying, “His accomplishments are too numerous to name.” Hatch’s continued service in the Senate was important in the passage of a comprehensive tax reform bill.
The leadership of Senator Hatch as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in 2017 enabled President Trump to achieve one of his most major legislative successes.
During his long time in the House of Representatives, according to the Hatch Foundation, Hatch sponsored or co-sponsored more than 750 measures that were signed into law.
Hatch stated in his farewell speech on December 12, 2018, that the Senate as an institution “is in crisis, or at the very least maybe is in crisis.”
It’s past time to re-establish the attitude of cooperation and mutual respect that once pervaded this place and brought everyone together.” We must embody the change we hope to see in the United States in both our private and public lives, and we must do so in both ways. Hatch made the following statement: “We must not be seen as adversaries, but rather as allies.
One of the Senate’s 10 longest-serving members, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa, referred to Hatch as a friend and expressed his sorrow at his death. They have been members of the Judiciary and Finance committees for many years. Grassley, who is 88 years old, turned to Twitter to express his dissatisfaction.
Hatch was a conservative on the vast majority of economic and social issues, although he collaborated with Democrats on stem cell research, disability rights, and health insurance for children, among other matters.
“He’s a legend in the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, referring to Hatch as “someone who could work across the aisle while also effectively advocating for the conservative cause.”
Pelosi, a Democrat from California, said he routinely worked across the aisle on behalf of American families and that many of them were praying for his and his family’s well-being at the time of his death.
In a tweet, former Vice President Mike Pence described him as “a real statesman who represented the finest of Utah and the United States of America.”
As one of Hatch’s “unlikely” allies in his closing speech, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) expressed doubt about whether their friendship would last in the current political climate.
Apart from that, he has been a supporter of conservative causes such as abortion restrictions, and he had a role in Justice Clarence Thomas’ appointment to the Supreme Court by defending him against allegations of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearings.
Hatch has advocated for three-digit national suicide prevention and mental health hotline number, and he supported a measure that was signed into law in 2018 that required the Federal Communications Commission to conduct a study. The 988 number will be operational by the end of July. Your phone calls and messages will be received by the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network, which will then forward them on.
When Hatch announced his retirement, Mitt Romney ran for and was elected to fill the vacancy. The Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney lauded Hatch on Saturday, calling him “a man of vision and unmatched legislative accomplishment.”
His influence on the Senate has been comparable to that of only a handful of other gentlemen. The judiciary, the economy, and the overall character of our country have all been elevated and strengthened as a result of his presidency. Romney praised Kennedy as “a tremendous man and a lion of the Senate, like his dear friend Ted Kennedy.” Romney called Kennedy “a terrific man and a lion of the Senate.”
In addition to his wife Elaine, he is survived by his six children. The Hatch Foundation has stated that the details of the funeral would be released at a later date.
