Jon Kyl the Senate Whip Who Returned to Confirm Kavanaugh Dies At 84

In September 2018, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey appointed Jon Kyl to fill John McCain's vacant Senate seat.

Jon Kyl died at 84, closing a Senate career built on judicial confirmations and decades of Arizona water deals.

His colleagues say the full weight of his legacy is only now becoming clear.

A Whip Who Came Out of Retirement for One Nomination

Kyl had already served 18 years in the Senate before he walked away in January 2013.

He did not plan to come back.

Then McCain died in August 2018, and Ducey called.

Kyl agreed to take the seat for four months, through the end of the year, with one job in mind.

He served as the Senate "sherpa" guiding Brett Kavanaugh through his Supreme Court confirmation, walking him to meetings and prepping him for hearings that turned into a national spectacle.

Kyl voted to confirm him.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Kyl "volunteered his even keel and sound judgment to fill the void" left by McCain's death.

McConnell called him "one of the most earnest and effective legislators this body had seen in recent memory."

Before that final tour, Kyl had already built one of the most conservative voting records in the Senate.

He carried a lifetime American Conservative Union score above 96 percent.

He voted to confirm Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

He voted against Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Kyl rose through Republican leadership over nearly two decades, chairing the Senate Republican Policy Committee, then the Republican Conference, then serving as Senate Republican Whip from 2007 to 2013.

Three Decades of Fighting for Arizona's Water Future

Kyl's Washington reputation was built on judges and tax fights, but Arizona remembers him for something closer to home.

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen said Kyl's work "strengthened America's national defense, protected taxpayers, advanced conservative policies, and helped secure Arizona's water future."

Even Democratic officials who disagreed with Kyl on almost everything else credited him on this point.

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said "so much of Jon Kyl's life work was about protecting Arizona's water" and called it "an important legacy."

Kyl negotiated the tribal water rights settlements and Colorado River agreements that Arizona still depends on today.

Congressman Andy Biggs said Kyl "understood Arizona" and "fought tirelessly for our interests" in Washington.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell pointed to a less-remembered piece of Kyl's record, his work rewriting evidence rules to protect victims of sex crimes.

Ducey, who put Kyl back in the Senate for that final Kavanaugh push, said Kyl gave Arizona "nearly three decades of principled, thoughtful leadership."

Ducey added that Kyl gave him "something just as valuable: his mentorship and friendship."

Kyl announced in December 2025 that he had been diagnosed with a neurological disease that would produce dementia, and he stepped away from public life at that point.

He was born Jon Llewellyn Kyl on April 25, 1942, in Oakland, Nebraska.

He married Caryll Collins in 1964.

They had two children and four grandchildren.

A Career Measured in Confirmed Judges and Signed Water Deals

Kyl belongs to a small club of Senate Republican leaders who left the Whip's office and kept working, the way Bob Dole did decades earlier after his own turn running Senate floor operations.

What sets Kyl apart is that he came back for a single, specific mission after he had already left.

Most retired senators do not get a second act; Kyl got four months that reshaped the Supreme Court for a generation.

Every conservative justice confirmed since 2018 has sat on a bench that Kyl helped fill, first by shepherding Kavanaugh through the gauntlet and earlier by casting votes for Roberts and Alito when those confirmations were far from guaranteed.

The conservative majority deciding today's biggest fights over immigration, elections and federal power still runs through seats Kyl helped secure, Kavanaugh most of all, a seat he personally walked across the Capitol to protect.

Arizona ranchers, tribes and cities drawing water from the Colorado River are living inside settlements Kyl hammered out over nearly three decades, long after the news cameras moved on to louder fights.

That combination, a national judiciary shaped in Washington and a desert state's water supply secured at home, is the kind of record that outlasts headlines.

Sources:

• Kevin Freking, "Jon Kyl, three-term Arizona senator, dies at 84," Associated Press, September 17, 2026.
• "Former US Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, a 'workhorse' who shaped water policy, dies at 84," KSAT/Associated Press, September 17, 2026.
• "Jon Kyl dead: Arizona politicians honor legacy," KTAR News, September 17, 2026.
• "Leader McConnell Pays Tribute to Senator Jon Kyl," Office of the Senate Republican Leader, September 17, 2026.
• "Republican Jon Kyl sworn in to fill McCain's Senate seat," NBC News, September 4, 2018.
• "Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl To Step Down, Leaving McCain's Seat Vacant Again," NPR, December 14, 2018.