Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a direct and dogged figure who converted the lessons of a hardscrabble childhood into a leadership role in national Democratic politics, died Tuesday. He was 82.

“I’m sure there are more people capable than I, better looking than me, better educated than me, smarter than me. But I’ve got the job. And I try to do the best I can with the job," Reid told POLITICO in December 2016, weeks before retiring from the Senate.

A former boxer who developed a rough-and-tumble approach to politics, the Nevada Democrat served five terms in the U.S. Senate and would be a particularly pivotal figure on Capitol Hill in two administrations, as an opposition figure pushing and prodding President George W. Bush and then as the Senate Majority Leader working to help President Barack Obama realize his agenda. Under his watch, Obama’s Affordable Care Act made it through a difficult legislative obstacle course and became law.

"He's got that curmudgeonly charm that is hard to replace," said Obama in March 2015.