Former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, a Republican who reshaped Tennessee politics and was once thought to be a contender for the presidency, has died, his law firm said Thursday.

Baker, 88, served 18 years in the U.S. Senate. In 1966, he was the first Republican to be popularly elected to the Senate from Tennessee. Baker was also a chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan and a U.S. Ambassador to Japan.

In 1984, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Baker had been in ailing health in recent years, but many Tennessee Republicans hail him as one of the most important figures in their party’s history.

“Howard Baker was Tennessee’s favorite son, one of America’s finest leaders and for Honey and me an indispensable friend,” U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander said in a statement. “He built our state’s two-party political system and inspired three generations to try to build a better state and country. It is difficult to express how much we honor his life and how much we will miss him.”

Baker was also a major figure in national politics. During the 1973 Watergate hearings, Baker helped focus a nation’s attention on President Richard Nixon’s involvement, turning what many had seen as a political scandal into a phenomenon that would shake up American politics.

The committee’s bipartisan work was later credited for restoring some measure of confidence in government, in no small part because of Baker’s determination to unearth what had happened.

“What did the president know, and when did he know it?” Baker asked at one point, posing a question still remembered four decades later.

Three years later, Baker came close to winning the Republican nomination for vice president, an honor that instead went to a colleague from Kansas, U.S. Sen. Bob Dole. It would not be the final word on his political career, however. In 1977, Senate Republicans elected him minority leader, an office that became majority leader when the GOP took control of the chamber in 1980.

Baker cherished his place in the Senate, Republicans recalled.

“When I think of the ultimate statesman, the very first person who comes to my mind is Howard Baker,” said U.S. Sen. Bob Corker. “Howard Baker was one of those people who had the unique ability to bring out the very best in those around him. He always put our country’s interests first, and lived a life of service that everyone in public office should aspire to emulate.”

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