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Harry Reid: The US Democrat died at the age of 82
Photo: MICHAEL REYNOLDS / EPA
The longtime Democratic US Senator Harry Reid is dead. Reid died on Tuesday at the age of 82 of pancreatic cancer, according to a statement from his wife that was available to the US media.
"It breaks my heart to announce the death of my husband," it said.
Accordingly, Reid, who headed the House of Lords during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, died "peacefully and surrounded by his family."
Born in 1939 in poor conditions in a mining town in the US state of Nevada, Reid entered the Senate for the first time in 1986.
After the 2004 elections, he took over the leadership of the House of Lords Democrats, and from 2007 to 2015 he was majority leader.
Until 2017 Reid was still a minority leader of the Democrats in the Senate - then he said goodbye to the political scene in Washington.
As a senator, the democratic politician gained almost three decades of experience in politics.
He was a democratic veteran, was often uncompromising and had a sharp tongue.
Reid was regarded as a loyal supporter of the then US President Obama and had to fight numerous political projects of Obama through the Senate.
"Without your encouragement and support, I would not have become president, and I would not have achieved most of what I have achieved without your ability and determination," wrote Obama on the death of his former companion. Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Tuesday night that the flags on the Capitol would be raised to half mast. "Harry Reid was one of the most amazing people I have ever met," he said.
Reid often referred to his working class background: his father was a miner, his mother a washerwoman.
As a teenager, he had to hitchhike 40 miles to high school.
In his youth he was also a prize boxer.
He financed his law studies by working night shifts with the US parliamentary police.
Reid was more conservative than most of the other Senate Democrats.
As a practicing Mormon, he strictly opposed abortion.
It was only this year that the international airport of the glittering metropolis Las Vegas was named after the Democrat.
asc / dpa / AFP
