Jon Kyl, the Arizona Republican who spent nearly three decades in Congress, rose to become his party’s No. 2 in the Senate and reshaped how the arid West divides its water, has died at 84. He died on Wednesday night, September 16, 2026, of complications from a neurological disease, and his family announced the death the following day.
Kyl announced in December 2025 that he had been diagnosed with dementia and would withdraw from public life.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, said in a post: “Throughout his decades of public service in the House and Senate, he was a dedicated statesman who always cared deeply for our state.”
Water Was the Work That Lasted
Long before he held office, Kyl was a lawyer representing a water utility and a key participant in writing Arizona’s 1980 groundwater code. The first-of-its-kind law created a regulatory framework for managing groundwater in a drought-stricken state, focused largely on population centers including Phoenix and Tucson.
In the Senate he returned to the subject with the Arizona Water Settlements Act, which he sponsored and Congress approved in 2004. The law authorized one of the largest tribal water rights settlements, guaranteeing the Gila River Indian Community enough water each year to fill nearly 313,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools, and it also rewrote portions of the earlier Southern Arizona Water Rights Settlement Act, which covers the Tohono O’odham Nation. Sen. Mitch McConnell called Kyl’s work ethic legendary in a 2012 floor speech, saying he had spent 15 years advancing the settlement largely out of public view.
Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University, which is named for him, said Kyl was generous with his time, practical about water policy and mindful of what today’s decisions would mean for generations to come.
From an Iowa Farm District to Arizona
Kyl was born April 25, 1942, in Oakland, Nebraska, and spent his childhood in an Iowa farm-country district that his father, Rep. John Henry Kyl, held in the U.S. House for more than ten years. His mother was Arlene Kyl. At 18 he headed southwest to the University of Arizona, where he met his wife, Caryll, earned a bachelor’s degree in 1964 and graduated from the James E. Rogers College of Law in 1966 as editor-in-chief of the Arizona Law Review.
He practiced law with Jennings, Strouss & Salmon in Phoenix and, like his father before him, led the Phoenix Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce from 1984 to 1985. He won the 1986 Republican primary over former Rep. John Conlan and served four terms in the U.S. House beginning in 1987. When Sen. Dennis DeConcini retired, Kyl flipped the open seat in 1994 and served three Senate terms, from 1995 until his retirement in 2013.
Whip in a Shrunken Republican Minority
His colleagues elected him Republican whip in 2007, the conference’s No. 2 job, and he held it through his final full term. After the 2008 elections cut Republicans to 41 senators, Kyl held a fractious coalition together, trading less on personal charm than on an ability to break a complicated bill into a case a member could accept. He also chaired the Senate Republican Policy Committee and the Senate Republican Conference and sat on committees including intelligence, finance, judiciary and appropriations.
Kyl pressed for a hard line on Iran, was tapped as vice chairman of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States, and fought hard against proposals to shutter the detention center at Guantánamo Bay. He derailed Democrats’ 1999 push for a nuclear test ban treaty and helped sink President George W. Bush’s 2005 nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. On immigration he backed legislation authorizing hundreds of miles of border fence, then drew conservative anger in 2007 when he joined Democrats on the Judiciary Committee to support a bipartisan bill offering a path to citizenship. In 2006 TIME magazine included him on its list of the nation’s best senators, and in 2010 the magazine placed him among the world’s 100 most influential people.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune praised Kyl’s love for his state and his skill as a legislator. Rep. Greg Stanton said Kyl’s seriousness and command of policy made him among the most effective leaders Arizona has sent to Washington.
A Brief Return to Fill McCain’s Seat
After leaving the Senate in 2013, Kyl joined the law and lobbying firm Covington and Burling as counsel, representing clients such as Facebook during the company’s inquiry into allegations that conservative-leaning users were being discriminated against, along with the conservative Judicial Crisis Network. He later served as the Senate “sherpa” steering Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Gov. Doug Ducey appointed him in 2018 to the seat left vacant by the death of Sen. John McCain; President Donald Trump welcomed the choice. Kyl stayed less than four months before returning to private life, and Martha McSally was appointed to the seat in January 2019.
Ducey, who considered Kyl a mentor, described him as a workhorse among Washington’s showhorses and a giant in the Senate, and recalled him reading bills from a coach aisle seat. Former Sen. Jeff Flake, who succeeded Kyl after the 2012 elections, said the government needs people willing to serve a cause larger than themselves and that Kyl was a true public servant. “Arizona has lost a giant,” Flake wrote on social media.
His family said Kyl belonged to all of Arizona, a state he explored with vigor and curiosity, and that he treated his service in Congress as both a privilege and a responsibility. The University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections acquired his congressional papers in 2012, and the university established the Kyl Institute for National Security earlier in 2026. Kyl is survived by his wife, Caryll; two children, Kristine Kyl Gavin and John Kyl; and four grandchildren.