Former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl has been diagnosed with dementia and will withdraw from public life, he announced Tuesday.
“I was blessed to represent the people of Arizona in Congress and to have numerous other opportunities to contribute to the political and civic life of our nation and state,” Kyl, 83, said in a statement.
The announcement brings to a close a career that included eight years in the House and nearly 20 years in the Senate, where he became a prominent member of Republican leadership. As chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, and later as GOP whip, Kyl’s stances on foreign policy, taxes and legal matters often became the de facto positions of his GOP colleagues.
He was a key player on immigration and one of the GOP’s pre-eminent advocates of a robust national security posture. But his defining role in the Senate played out in behind-the-scenes negotiations. “I have made an effort not to be partisan in an in-your-face sense,” he once said. “Ordinarily, I don’t talk about Republicans and Democrats. I talk about ideas.”
Operating in the shadows, Kyl helped block the Supreme Court nomination in 2005 of Harriet Miers, former President George W. Bush’s White House counsel, whom conservatives considered underqualified and unreliably conservative.
Kyl retired from the Senate in 2013 but returned in 2018 when he was appointed by former Gov. Doug Ducey to temporarily fill the vacancy left by the death of Sen. John McCain. He served less than a year before resigning, stepping aside for Republican Martha McSally to be appointed in January 2019.
Born in 1942, Kyl spent his childhood in Nebraska and Iowa. His father, John H. Kyl, was president of the local Chamber of Commerce and later served 11 years in the U.S. House.
The younger Kyl followed in his father’s footsteps: Jon Kyl was president of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce when he won the 1986 GOP primary over John Conlon, a former House member trying for a comeback. Kyl handily won the general election and served four terms.
He launched a Senate bid in 1994, even before incumbent Democrat Dennis DeConcini announced his retirement. Kyl had an easy victory over first-term Democratic Rep. Sam Coppersmith and won subsequent reelections with ease.
Out of office, Kyl remained active in public policy, including at the influential lobbying and law firm Covington & Burling. For his role in shaping water policy in the Southwest, Kyl is the namesake of the University of Arizona’s Kyl Center for Water Policy.
In the wake of his announcement, Arizonans across the political spectrum expressed their support.
“Dementia is a tough disease, and Gabby and I are thinking of him and the whole Kyl family, as they take this on together,” Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly wrote on the social media platform X.
“Not sure I would have been Governor without his counsel and encouragement,” said former Gov. Ducey on X. “Senator Jon Kyl is a giant set forth in the tradition of Arizona’s own Barry Goldwater.”
Despite his diagnosis, Kyl’s statement struck a note of optimism.
“In a letter to the American people in similar circumstances, Ronald Reagan wrote that he was headed into ‘the sunset of my life,’” Kyl said. “Yet, he expressed confidence that, for America, there would ‘always be a bright dawn ahead.’ I share Reagan’s confidence about the future, for the country and for our state.”
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