Jon Kyl, the Arizona Republican who spent nearly three decades in Congress, rose to his party’s No. 2 job in the Senate and reshaped how the arid West divides its water, died at 84.
Kyl died Wednesday night, September 16, 2026, at his home in Phoenix. A neurological disorder was the cause, according to Gordon James, a communications professional who had been a longtime friend of the Kyl family and who confirmed the death to The Associated Press. A family statement released September 17 said Kyl died of complications from a neurological disease.
A diagnosis of a neurological disease manifesting as dementia was what Kyl disclosed on December 30, 2025. He said then that he would withdraw from public life. The family said memorial services will be announced later.
The Senate unanimously approved a resolution honoring Kyl on September 23. Sen. Mark Kelly sponsored the measure, and all 99 of his colleagues signed on as cosponsors. The Senate then adjourned in his memory.
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.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune called Kyl “a true legislator’s legislator” who loved his state. Rep. Greg Stanton pointed to Kyl’s seriousness and his command of policy, qualities that placed him among the most effective leaders Arizona has sent to Washington.
Former Gov. Doug Ducey, who considered Kyl a mentor, said in a tribute posted on social media: “Jon Kyl gave Arizona nearly three decades of principled, thoughtful leadership — and he gave me something just as valuable: his mentorship and friendship.” In a February 2025 interview with The Associated Press, Ducey called Kyl a workhorse among Washington’s showhorses and a giant in the Senate. “If you saw him on the plane, he was sitting in the aisle, in coach, and he was reading,” Ducey said.
Former Sen. Jeff Flake, who succeeded Kyl after the 2012 elections, wrote on social media: “Arizona has lost a giant.” The government needs people willing to serve a cause larger than themselves, Flake added, describing Kyl as a true public servant.
All of Arizona could claim Kyl, the family said, describing a state he explored with vigor and curiosity. His service in Congress, they added, was something he treated as both a privilege and a responsibility.
Shaping Water in the West
Before he held office, Kyl was a lawyer representing the Salt River Project, a large water utility. He was a key participant in writing Arizona’s 1980 groundwater code, a first-of-its-kind law that created a regulatory framework for managing groundwater in a drought-stricken state and focused largely on population centers including Phoenix and Tucson.
In the Senate, Kyl sponsored the Arizona Water Settlements Act, which Congress approved in 2004. The law authorized one of the largest tribal water rights settlements, and the Gila River Indian Community draws from it a yearly guarantee of enough water to fill nearly 313,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The Southern Arizona Water Rights Settlement Act, an earlier law covering the Tohono O’odham Nation, also saw portions of its text rewritten.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, in a 2012 floor speech, called Kyl’s work ethic legendary. The senator had put 15 years into advancing the settlement largely out of public view, McConnell said.
The Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University bears his name, and its director, Sarah Porter, remembered a man who gave his time generously, took a practical view of water policy and kept in mind what today’s decisions would mean for generations to come.
Rising to Republican Whip
Kyl’s colleagues elected him Republican whip in 2007, the conference’s No. 2 job, and the post stayed his through his final full term. The 2008 elections cut Republicans to 41 senators, and Kyl held that fractious coalition together by trading less on personal charm than on an ability to break a complicated bill into a case a member could accept.
The Senate Republican Policy Committee and the Senate Republican Conference both had him as chairman, and his committee assignments included Finance and Judiciary, among others.
Iran drew a hard line from Kyl, and proposals to shutter the detention center at Guantánamo Bay drew a hard fight from him. Democrats’ 1999 push for a nuclear test ban treaty ended when he derailed it, and the 2005 nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, made by President George W. Bush, was another he helped sink.
On immigration, Kyl backed legislation authorizing hundreds of miles of border fence. He then drew conservative anger in 2007 when, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, he joined Democrats to support a bipartisan bill offering a path to citizenship.
TIME magazine included Kyl on its list of the nation’s best senators in 2006, and in 2010 the magazine placed him among the world’s 100 most influential people. Long after leaving the Senate, he served as vice chair of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States.
Lobbying and a Senate Return
After leaving the Senate in 2013, Kyl joined the law and lobbying firm Covington and Burling as counsel. His clients included Facebook, during the company’s inquiry into allegations that conservative-leaning users were being discriminated against, and the conservative Judicial Crisis Network. He later served as Senate “sherpa” steering Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Gov. Doug Ducey appointed Kyl on September 4, 2018, to the seat left vacant by the death of Sen. John McCain, and President Donald Trump welcomed the choice. Kyl served less than four months, resigning at the end of 2018. Ducey then appointed Martha McSally to the seat.
From Nebraska to Arizona
Kyl was born April 25, 1942, in Oakland, Nebraska. He 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 10 years. His mother was Arlene Griffith Kyl.
At 18, Kyl headed southwest to the University of Arizona, where he met his wife, Caryll. He 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 chaired the Phoenix Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce from 1984 to 1985.
Kyl 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. He served three Senate terms, from 1995 until his retirement in 2013.
The University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections acquired his congressional papers in 2012, and the university announced the Kyl Institute for National Security in January 2026.
Kyl is survived by his wife, Caryll; two children, Kristine Kyl Gavin and John Kyl; and four grandchildren.