Orrin Hatch, longtime Republican senator, dies at age 88

Orrin G. Hatch, who became the longest-serving Republican senator in history while representing Utah for more than four decades, died Saturday at the age of 88.

His death was announced in a statement of its foundation, which did not specify a cause. He launched the Hatch Foundation when he retired in 2019 and was replaced by Republican Mitt Romney.

Conservative on most economic and social issues, however, he collaborated with Democrats several times during his long career on issues ranging from stem cell research to the rights of people with disabilities. until the expansion of children’s health insurance. He also formed friendships across the aisle, especially with the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

“He exemplified a generation of legislators educated in the principles of courtesy and commitment, and embodied those principles better than anyone else,” Hatch Foundation President A. Scott Anderson said in a statement. “In a divided nation, Orrin Hatch helped us show a better way to forge meaningful friendships on both sides of the aisle. Today, more than ever, we would do well to follow his example.”

Hatch also defended GOP issues such as abortion limits and helped shape the U.S. Supreme Court, including Judge Clarence Thomas’ defense against allegations of sexual harassment during confirmation hearings.

Towards the end of his career, Hatch became an ally of Republican President Donald Trump, using his role as chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee to achieve a major rewrite of U.S. tax codes on the U.S. president. In return, Trump helped Hatch provide a key issue for Republicans in Utah by agreeing to drastically reduce two national landmarks that had been declared by past presidents.

Through Trump he encouraged Hatch to run again, the longtime senator, who would have faced a tough primary battle and had promised not to run again. Hatch stepped aside and encouraged Romney to run to replace him.

Hatch was also noted for his high school career as a singer and music recording artist with themes of his religious faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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

Hatch came to the Senate after a victory in the 1976 election and became the longest-serving senator in Utah history, winning a seventh term in 2012. He became the pro tempore president of the Senate on 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.

One of the problems 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 for decades. He authored a variety of “Hatch Amendments” to the Constitution aimed at reducing the availability of abortions.

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

Although unquestionably conservative, there were times when Hatch differed from many of his 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 do not meet Medicaid requirements.

Hatch helped introduce legislation that tightened child pornography laws and made downloading music illegally a felony.

For Hatch, the subject of illegally downloaded music was personal. Mormon often wrote religious songs and recorded music in his spare time as a way to relax from the stress of life in Washington. Hatch earned about $ 39,000 in copyright on his songs in 2005.

One of his songs, “Unspoken”, went platinum after appearing on “WOW Hits 2005”, a compilation of Christian pop music.

In 2000, Hatch sought the Republican nomination for president, saying he had more experience in Washington than his opponents and could work with Democrats. Hatch readily acknowledged that winning would be a long way off. He withdrew from the race after winning only 1% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses and then backed George W. Bush.

He became a strong opponent of President Barack Obama’s 2009 health care law after retiring from the first bipartisan talks on legislation. At one point, he said of the legislation, “It has 2,074 pages. It’s enough to make you gossip.”

Hatch faced a tough battle for the re-election of a Conservative candidate in 2012, two years after a wave of tea parties ousted Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett. Both Bennett and Hatch voted in favor of a bank bailout in 2008 that upset those on the far right.

Hatch invested about $ 10 million in his 2012 career and worked to build support among Tea Party conservatives.

Hatch was used to playing hard: he learned boxing as a child in Pittsburgh to defend himself from the attacks of older and older students. Fearless of fighting, he said he always made it a point to quickly befriend those he argued with.

When Hatch announced he would not seek re-election in 2018, he said “every good fighter knows when to hang up his 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 and narrowly annoyed Democratic Sen. Frank Moss.

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

He was never seriously challenged again.

Orrin Grant Hatch was born in 1934 in Pittsburgh. He married Elaine Hanson in 1957 and graduated from Brigham Young University in 1959. He graduated in law from the University of Pittsburgh in 1962 and was a partner in the law firm of Thomson, Rhodes and Grigsby. city ​​until 1969.

He later became a partner in the Salt Lake City Hatch & Plumb Company. He had six children: Brent, Marcia, Scott, Kimberly, Alysa and Jess.

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