Former Sen. Jon Kyl, the Arizona Republican who climbed to the No. 2 job in the Senate over nearly three decades in Congress and reshaped how the arid West divides its water, died Wednesday night, September 16, 2026, of complications from a neurological disease. He was 84.
The family announced the death the following day, September 17, in a statement shared with Arizona’s KTAR News that attributed it to complications from an unspecified neurological disease. Gordon James, a communications professional who is a longtime friend of the Kyl family, said Kyl died Wednesday night from a neurological disorder.
Kyl announced a dementia diagnosis in December 2025 and said he 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.”
The Water Work That Lasted
Kyl’s water career began well before he held office. As a lawyer he represented a water utility, and he was a key participant in writing Arizona’s 1980 groundwater code. That first-of-its-kind law set up rules for overseeing groundwater in a state gripped by drought, and it aimed its attention chiefly at population centers, Phoenix and Tucson among them.
He came back to the subject as a senator, sponsoring the Arizona Water Settlements Act. Congress approved the measure in 2004, clearing one of the largest tribal water rights settlements and promising the Gila River Indian Community an annual supply sufficient to fill nearly 313,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The same law also revised parts of the Southern Arizona Water Rights Settlement Act, an earlier statute governing the Tohono O’odham Nation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs later credited Kyl as a key figure in bringing stakeholders together and shepherding the act through Congress. In a 2012 floor speech, Sen. Mitch McConnell called Kyl’s work ethic legendary, saying he had spent 15 years advancing the settlement largely out of public view.
Sarah Porter directs the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University, which is named for him. In her telling, Kyl gave freely of his time, took a practical approach to water policy and kept in view what choices made today would mean for generations to come.
An Iowa Childhood and an Arizona Career
Born April 25, 1942, in Oakland, Nebraska, Kyl spent his boyhood in farm country in Iowa. His father, Rep. John Henry Kyl, represented that district in the U.S. House for more than ten years; his mother was Arlene Kyl. The University of Arizona drew him southwest at 18, and the campus gave him his wife, Caryll, a bachelor’s degree in 1964 and, in 1966, a law degree from the James E. Rogers College of Law, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Arizona Law Review.
In Phoenix he practiced with Jennings, Strouss & Salmon, and he followed his father in leading the Phoenix Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce from 1984 to 1985. He beat former Rep. John Conlan in the 1986 Republican primary, then took a U.S. House seat in 1987 and held it for four terms. The retirement of Sen. Dennis DeConcini left an open seat, which Kyl flipped in 1994; he served three Senate terms, from 1995 until his retirement in 2013.
Whip in a Diminished Republican Minority
Fellow Republicans made him their whip in 2007, handing him the conference’s No. 2 job, and he kept it through his final full term. The 2008 elections cut Republicans to 41 senators. Holding that fractious coalition together, Kyl relied less on personal charm than on a knack for breaking a complicated bill down into a case a member could accept.
In 2009, Sen. Lisa Murkowski put it this way: “He’s got a way about him, a mannerism, I think that’s not aggressive, it’s not pushy. It’s, come on, let’s get this done.” She also said, “Everyone leaves the room thinking, yeah we can make this work.” Kyl chaired the Senate Republican Policy Committee and the Senate Republican Conference as well, and his committee assignments included intelligence, finance, judiciary and appropriations.
A hard line on Iran was one of his causes, and colleagues tapped him as vice chairman of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. He also fought hard against proposals to shutter the detention center at Guantánamo Bay. In 1999 he derailed Democrats’ push for a nuclear test ban treaty, and in 2005 he helped sink President George W. Bush’s pick of White House counsel Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. Immigration drew a mixed record: he backed legislation authorizing hundreds of miles of border fence, then angered conservatives in 2007 by joining Democrats on the Judiciary Committee to support a bipartisan bill offering a path to citizenship. TIME magazine put him 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.
Of his own record, Kyl said: “At the federal level, and I regret to say that this is the case, but probably a lot of my better achievements were in preventing bad things from happening (rather) than forcing good things to happen.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune pointed to the affection Kyl held for his state and to his talent for legislating. Rep. Greg Stanton credited his earnestness and his grasp of policy with placing him among the most effective leaders Arizona has sent to Washington.
A Short Return to McCain’s Seat
Kyl left the Senate in 2013 for the law and lobbying firm Covington and Burling, joining as counsel. Facebook was among his clients there, and he advised the company as it investigated allegations that conservative-leaning users were being discriminated against; the conservative Judicial Crisis Network also retained him. A later assignment made him the Senate “sherpa” steering Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation. In 2018, Gov. Doug Ducey appointed him to the seat left vacant by the death of Sen. John McCain, a choice President Donald Trump welcomed. Kyl gave up the seat after less than four months and returned to private life, and Martha McSally was appointed to it in January 2019.
In a September 17 social media post, Ducey wrote: “Jon Kyl gave Arizona nearly three decades of principled, thoughtful leadership — and he gave me something just as valuable: his mentorship and friendship,” adding in the same post, “I’ll miss him deeply.” In a February 2025 interview with The Associated Press, Ducey had described the senator’s habits on the road: “If you saw him on the plane, he was sitting in the aisle, in coach, and he was reading.” Ducey added: “And he was reading potential bills or Senate business.”
Kyl was a true public servant, said Former Sen. Jeff Flake, who took the seat after the 2012 elections, arguing that government needs people willing to serve a cause larger than themselves. “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. His congressional papers went to the University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections 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.
