North Carolina is remembering the life of former U.S. Senator Kay Hagan, who passed away Monday morning at age 66, according to her family.

In an increasingly divided Washington, D.C., Rep. David Price said she worked to be a “consensus builder.”

“We should have had her around a lot longer to make the contributions that she was capable of doing,” said Price, D-4th District.

Hagan was diagnosed in 2016 with Powassan Virus, an illness transmitted by some ticks that can cause swelling of the brain.

Hagan got her start in Tar Heel State politics behind the scenes, helping with Jim Hunt’s successful bids for governor in the 1990s.

Before long, her own name was on the ballot. She successfully ran for the state senate in 1998, to represent a district in the Greensboro area. Her career in Raleigh would go on to last a decade.

By 2008, she decided to make the jump to Washington, D.C. In doing so, she took on a big name in Republican politics: incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Hagan won the race, in part riding the Obama wave to victory.

On Capitol Hill, she made her mark. Hagan supported the Affordable Care Act as well as Dodd-Frank financial reforms. 

She occasionally broke with her party, including on proposals to cut military funding.

“She brought a history from the North Carolina Senate, that made her very sensitive to a lot of state issues, especially education and healthcare," Price said. "Then she found a way at the federal level to carry those battles forward."

Hagan served alongside Republican Sen. Richard Burr, who said in a statement that she "tackled everything she did with a passion and a sense of humor that will be missed.”

“We worked across the aisle together frequently on issues that we both knew would determine what type of country our children would inherit, from conservation to our common defense,” he said.

In 2014, Hagan faced off against then-State House Speaker Thom Tillis. In what was a costly, high-dollar race, she lost by less than 50,000 votes.

In a statement, Tillis offered his condolences and prayers for Hagan’s family. “We join all North Carolinians in remembering her dedicated and distinguished record of public service to our state and nation,” he wrote.

Other lawmakers also remembered the former lawmaker.

“She was a very good friend. She was a centrist senator. She understood political compromise,” said Rep. GK Butterfield, D-1st District.

“I think they'll remember her as someone who carried herself with grace and with class,” said Rep. Mark Walker, R-6th District. “I think that represented her family and her character, much greater than even her politics.”

Despite her illness, Hagan was active in politics until the end. She even attended a Biden campaign event Sunday in Durham, the day before her passing. She and her husband met privately with the former Vice President.

In a statement Monday, Joe Biden called Hagan a “courageous soul.”