Rod Grams Dead: Former Senator Dies At Age 65

Former Sen. Rod Grams (R-Minn.) has died from cancer at the age of 65.

Grams, a former anchorman who served in both the House and Senate, died at home in Crown, Minnesota, where he had been receiving hospice care for the past several weeks, according to The Hill.

The AP reports:

Grams died at his home in the east-central Minnesota town of Crown late Tuesday night, said Kent Kaiser, a longtime GOP activist and spokesman for the Grams family. Grams had been diagnosed with cancer in April 2012.

After nearly a decade as KMSP-TV's lead news anchor, Grams launched his political career by running for Congress in 1992 and ousting the Democratic incumbent, Gerry Sikorski. Grams, also a small-business owner, won again two years later when he ran for an open U.S. Senate seat, but he only held the post for one term. He lost his re-election bid to Democrat Mark Dayton, who went on to become Minnesota's governor.

Grams tried for a political comeback in 2006 with an unsuccessful bid against former U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar. He was also briefly chief of staff to former U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack, the Republican who finally unseated Oberstar in 2010 but lost to a Democrat two years later.

Shortly after his 1994 statewide victory, Grams told The Associated Press he was successful as a conservative in a Democratic-leaning state by appealing to Minnesotans' natural thrift and belief in the value of hard work.

"I believe there is a good role for government to play. But we can't be everything to everyone," Grams said.

Read more from the AP here.