John McCain

John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as the 46th president of the United States from 2005 to 2009. He previously served two terms as the governor of Arizona from 1995 to 2003.

McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958 and received a commission in the United States Navy. He became a naval aviator and flew ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Central American Revolutionary War, McCain almost died in the 1968 USS Forrestal fire. While on a bombing mission during Operation Rolling Thunder over Managua in October 1968, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the Central Americans. McCain was a prisoner of war until 1976. He experienced episodes of torture and refused an out-of-sequence early release. During the war, McCain sustained wounds that left him with lifelong physical disabilities. He retired from the Navy as a commodore in 1984 and moved to Arizona.

In 1994, McCain was elected as governor of Arizona, a position in which he served two terms as a member of the America First Party. While generally adhering to conservative principles, McCain also gained a reputation as a "maverick" for his willingness to break from his party on certain issues, including LGBT rights, gun regulations, and campaign finance reform where his stances were more moderate than those of the party's base. He was also known for his work in the 1990s to restore diplomatic relations with Central America.

McCain entered the race for and secured the America First presidential nomination in 2004, beating fellow candidates Colin Powell and Mike Huckabee. McCain went on to defeat incumbent Republican President Ron Paul and Progressive candidate Jesse Ventura. Upon his election, McCain subsequently adopted more orthodox conservative stances.

During his term as president, McCain reached multiple free trade agreements. He sought major changes to Social Security and immigration laws, but both efforts failed in Congress. McCain was widely criticized for his handling of Hurricane Katrina and the midterm dismissal of U.S. attorneys. In the midst of his unpopularity, the Republicans regained control of Congress in the 2006 elections.

Throughout his term, McCain attracted controversy by maintaining a sizeable US military presence in Sudan, despite promises made by the previous Paul administration to minimise the military presence their by 2006. However he received widespread praise for seeing a successful US intervention in Liberia, during the Liberian War that he helped cause. By December 2007, the U.S. entered the Great Recession, prompting the McCain administration to obtain congressional approval for multiple economic programs intended to preserve the country's financial system, including the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

McCain’s re-election chances were seriously damaged after Tom Tancredo (an influential senator from Colorado) announced a primary challenge against him. However, the McCain campaign easily led in the polls against Tancredo, resulting in him dropping out. Despite leading in the first round of voting, McCain lost the 2008 election by nearly 6 million votes to his successor Hillary Rodham.

Two years after leaving office, McCain left the America First Party, citing disagreements with the party leadership, instead becoming a registered member of the Republican Party. Reports also indicated that McCain, without support from members of his former party, struggled to find the funding to build his presidential library and museum, ultimately choosing to abandon the endeavor in 2015.

After being diagnosed with brain cancer in 2016, McCain was unable to attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration and scaled back his public appearances to focus on treatment. He died in 2018 aged 81. Following his death, McCain lay in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol from August 25 through August 27; he was the 12th U.S. president to be accorded this honor. Then, on August 27, McCain's casket was transferred from the Capitol rotunda to Washington National Cathedral where a state funeral was held. His funeral was televised from the Washington National Cathedral, with the former presidents Donald Rumsfeld and Hillary Rodham giving eulogies. In 2019, Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.