Connecticut governor and lawmaker Lowell Weicker dead at 92

Lowell Weicker — Connecticut’s first independent governor — is dead at 92.

The political powerhouse, who served as a governor and in both chambers of Congress, died Wednesday in a Connecticut hospital following a short illness, according to the Hartford Courant.

Weicker served three terms in the Connecticut General Assembly before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1969. He was sworn into the U.S. Senate in 1971 and remained there until 1989 after being defeated by Joe Lieberman. The Army veteran returned to the political stage in 1991 to become Connecticut’s 85th governor.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal led a long list of politicos celebrating the former lawmaker’s life and sending condolences to Weicker’s family, which includes his third wife, Claudia.

“Lowell Weicker was always larger than life — fearless and relentless in fighting for what he believed right, and in serving people,” the Democratic senator said. “As an elected official, he was a model of courage in standing up and speaking out for conviction and conscience, even if others disagreed. He did immense good for Connecticut and our country, and he did it his way.”

Current Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont similarly described Weicker as “bigger than life” and said flags will fly at half-staff to honor the former first lieutenant.

Weicker’s legacy includes helping to bring a state tax to Connecticut. He will also be remembered for putting country over party.

In 1974, while serving as a Republican on the Senate select committee investigating Watergate, Weicker became the first GOP senator to call for the resignation of scandal-plagued President Richard Nixon, according to the Courant.

His opposition to the 37th president made him a hero to some and a villain to others in the party he would leave before launching his independent gubernatorial campaign.

“When I was in Connecticut, I would get flipped the bird all the time,” Weicker, the last living member of the Watergate Committee, told CT Insider in 2012. “After Watergate was over, then the needle goes all the way the other way, and I’ve got huge favorability ratings.”

Weicker — who ran for president in 1980 but failed to win his party’s nomination — also labeled Donald Trump a “total con artist” in 2015 before the former reality TV star won the 2016 presidential election.

Weicker later criticized the GOP for being afraid to challenge the twice-impeached, twice-indicted 45th president.

“Let’s face it. The Republican Party that we know today is nowhere near the Republican Party of my lifetime,” he said during a 2019 interview with the Courant. “It’s just not. It’s way over to the right.”

Following the announcement of Weicker’s passing, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut remembered him as “one of the most consequential leaders in Connecticut history.”

“I’m heartbroken that he’s gone,” Murphy wrote on Twitter. “He modeled a kind of public service that feels extinct today. He put his convictions and the best interests of the country ahead of party or political gain.”

Murphy believes Weicker’s will be remembered largely for “his championing of disability rights, reproductive choice, gay rights, environmental and ocean protection, foreign aid and AIDS research.”