Likewise, after his brief run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, he conceded the race with centrist magnanimity to eventual winner, George W. Bush. “I like that he can reach across party lines,” said Mr. Hatch about mr. Bush. “We can’t just take a scary agenda and be just for a few people in this country. We have to be there for everyone.”
Despite all his conservative credentials, Mr. Hatch established a long and sincere friendship with Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the quintessential liberal Democrat. They spoke often and shared legislative achievements, including programs to help AIDS patients, protect the disabled from discrimination, and provide health insurance to the working poor. Mr. Hatch delivered a moving eulogy at Mr. Kennedy’s funeral in 2009.
DailyExpertNews in 1981 described Mr. Hatch as “an aggressive, ambitious man who, like anything, resembles a minister making his rounds.” He was, in fact, a bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Away from Capitol Hill, he led a quiet married life, father of six children. He jogged, golfed and looked like an athlete even after his dark hair turned white.
Senators, even Republicans, called him relatively humorless. His idea of a good joke about himself was a video of him trying to take off glasses he wasn’t wearing during a controversial Senate hearing. It went viral online. A spokesperson said he laughed at himself when he saw it, and created a fake Warby Parker page suggesting invisible glasses were the new craze.
Mr Hatch had been an amateur boxer in his youth, with 11 matches to his credit. He was also a pianist, violinist and organist, writing songs for pop groups and folk singers. In the early 1970s, he was the band manager of a Mormon-themed folk group, “Free Agency.” He also wrote books on politics and religion, and articles for magazines and newspapers, including The Times.
He was 42 years old, a tall, slender lawyer from Salt Lake City, when he went to Washington in 1977 after defeating a three-year Democratic incumbent with the help of an endorsement — for “Warren Hatch” — from Ronald Reagan. The former governor of California lost his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination for President Gerald Ford, but would take office in 1980 with his conservative revolution and see Mr. Hatch as an ally.
As a freshman in the Senate, Mr. Hatch mentored among his deepest conservatives – Democrats James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Jim Allen of Alabama, and the Democrat turned Republican, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. However, he did not share their zeal for racial segregation.
