By Marla Jones, Managing Editor • marla@southerntorch.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rush Limbaugh, the influential media icon that transformed talk radio, modern politics, and shaped the modern-day Republican Party, has passed away after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 70.

In January 2020, he was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. Days later, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Donald J. Trump at his last State of the Union address.

"For more than three decades Rush has been a voice for conservatism," said U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.). "When he began his nationally syndicated program, he singlehandedly changed the political landscape of America.  Rush’s message in the early 1990s helped lead to the Republican revolution of 1994, and I believe played a role in my own election in 1996.   Rush will be missed.  My prayers go out to his family and his millions of listeners.”

The Rush Limbaugh Show began in 1988 where he spent over three decades becoming one of the most beloved men in American media with up to 27 million people tuning in on a weekly basis.