Harry Reid, US Senate leader under Bush, Obama, dies at 82
- The Nevada Democrat used his experience in Congress to help former president Barack Obama steer his landmark Affordable Care Act through the Senate
- He was elected to the Senate in 1986 and served as its majority leader from 2007 to 2015. Reid was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018
“I am heartbroken to announce the passing of my husband,” his wife, Landra, said in a statement released to US media, adding he died “peacefully … surrounded by our family”.
Reid, who used his experience in Congress to help Obama steer his landmark Affordable Care Act through the Senate, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018.
Laconic and soft-spoken, Reid was born and raised in the mining town of Searchlight, Nevada on December 2, 1939, in a house with no hot water or indoor toilets.
A prizefighter in his youth, he used his pugilistic instincts to work his way up to becoming one of the longest-serving majority leaders in the history of the US Senate, and even called his memoir The Good Fight.
Current Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said Reid was “one of the most amazing individuals I’ve ever met.”
“He never forgot where he came from and used those boxing instincts to fearlessly fight those who were hurting the poor and middle class,” Schumer said on Twitter.