Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who rose from a childhood of poverty in a small Nevada town to a 34-year tenure in the heights of power in Washington DC, died Tuesday at 82.
Reid died 'peacefully' and surrounded by friends 'following a courageous, four-year battle with pancreatic cancer,' said his wife, Landra Reid.
'Harry was a devout family man and deeply loyal friend,' she said. 'We greatly appreciate the outpouring of support from so many over these past few years. We are especially grateful for the doctors and nurses that cared for him. Please know that meant the world to him.'
Funeral arrangements will be announced in the coming days, she said.
The five-term senator helped broker the Affordable Care Act, encouraged then-Senator Barack Obama to run for President and near-singlehandedly thwarted a proposed nuclear waste facility in his state's Yucca Mountains.
Former Senate Majority Leader and Nevada political giant Harry Reid (pictured) died at the age of 82 on Tuesday after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer
Reid (right) pushed then-Senator Barrack Obama (left) to run for President in 2008. In 2016, Obama lauded Reid for his work in the Senate, declaring, 'I could not have accomplished what I accomplished without him being at my side'
Harry Reid, who became a Mormon after going to college at Utah State University, is pictured shaking hands with Pope Francis
His political clout, known as 'The Reid Machine,' helped flip Nevada to a Democrat-majority statehouse, and pushed Democratic candidates to victory in his state in the last four elections.
The combative former middleweight boxer-turned-lawyer was widely acknowledged as one of toughest dealmakers in Congress, a conservative Democrat in an increasingly polarized chamber who vexed lawmakers of both parties with a brusque manner and this motto:
'I would rather dance than fight, but I know how to fight.'
Over a 34-year career in Washington, Reid thrived on behind-the-scenes wrangling and kept the Senate controlled by his party through two presidents — Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama — a crippling recession and the Republican takeover of the House after the 2010 elections.
He retired in 2016 after an accident left him blind in one eye.
In May 2018, Reid revealed he'd been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was undergoing treatment.
Pictured is the two-room cabin without plumbing where Reid grew up in Searchlight, Nevada
Here, Reid is pictured as a baby in a photo captioned 'my humble beginnings' on his Instagram
Less than two weeks ago, officials and one of his sons, Rory Reid, marked the renaming of the busy Las Vegas airport as Harry Reid International Airport. Rory Reid is a former Clark County Commission chairman and Democratic Nevada gubernatorial candidate.
Neither Harry nor Landra attended the December 14 ceremony held at the facility that had been known since 1948 as McCarran International Airport, after a former U.S. senator from Nevada, Pat McCarran, and today ranks as one of the 10 busiest airports in the U.S.
He was known in Washington for his abrupt style, typified by his habit of unceremoniously hanging up the phone without saying goodbye.
'Even when I was president, he would hang up on me,' Obama said in a 2019 tribute video to Reid.
He was frequently underestimated, most recently in the 2010 elections when he looked like the underdog to Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle. Ambitious Democrats, assuming his defeat, began angling for his leadership post. But Reid defeated Angle, 50 percent to 45 percent, and returned to the pinnacle of his power. For Reid, it was legacy time.
'I don't have people saying 'he's the greatest speaker,' 'he's handsome,' 'he's a man about town,'' Reid told The New York Times following his election win. 'But I don't really care. I feel very comfortable with my place in history.'
Harry Reid, right, is pictured alongside his surviving wife, Landra Reid after the longtime senator defeated opponent Sharron Angle to win reelection in 2010
Reid is pictured with his wife, Landra, and his son Key at the Washington National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships Capitol Hill reception in 1994
Reid, left, is pictured beside former President George W. Bush in 2008
The late Harry Reid is pictured shaking hands with former President Bill Clinton in 1998
Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (left) is pictured with now-President Joe Biden in 2016 on Capitol Hill in Washington. With 34 years in Congress, Reid was the longest-standing Congressman in Nevada history
Reid was born on December 2, 1939, in the town of Searchlight - population 800 - to an alcoholic father who killed himself at 58 and a mother who served as a laundress in a bordello. He grew up in a two-room cabin without indoor plumbing, hot water or a telephone and swam with other children at a pool at a local brothel.
He hitchhiked to Basic High School in Henderson, 40 miles from home, where he was given the nickname 'Pinky' and met the woman he would marry in 1959, Landra Gould. At Utah State University, the couple became members of The Church of Latter-Day Saints.
The future senator put himself through George
