Gwen Graham is running for lieutenant governor on David Jolly's Democratic ticket in the Nov. 3 general election.
Graham is a former U.S. representative and daughter of the late Florida Gov. Bob Graham. In a candidate questionnaire submitted to Palmetto-Cutler News, she said she and Jolly align on housing, health care, education and opposition to data centers.
Jolly named Graham as his running mate on June 10, and the pair filed qualifying paperwork in Tallahassee the same day, according to ClickOrlando.
Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay voters will see this race on their ballots.
Other candidates for lieutenant governor:
- Bryan Avila (Republican)
- Nicole Skelly (Libertarian)
- Benjiman Rojas (No Party Preference)
- Joe Van Vactor (No Party Preference)
- Juan Santana (No Party Preference)
- Rachel Rodriguez (No Party Preference)
- Ruben A. Coto (No Party Preference)
Candidate information
- Full name: Gwen Graham
- Date of birth: Jan. 31, 1963
- Birthplace: Miami Lakes, Florida
- Residence: Tallahassee, Florida
- Family: Married to Steve Hurm; three children
- Father: The late Bob Graham, former Florida governor and U.S. senator, who died in 2024
- Education: Bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1984); law degree from American University Washington College of Law (1988)
- Party: Democratic
Experience and public service
Graham represented Florida's 2nd Congressional District from January 2015 to January 2017. In 2014, she defeated Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, one of only two Democrats nationally to unseat an incumbent Republican that year.
In Congress, Graham served on the Armed Services and Agriculture committees. She said in her questionnaire that she focused on public education, veterans issues and the environment. She said she co-sponsored legislation with Sen. Bill Nelson opposing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
She ran for governor in 2018. She finished second in a seven-person Democratic primary with 31.3% of the vote, losing to Andrew Gillum by 47,289 votes.
Graham served as assistant secretary for legislation and congressional affairs at the U.S. Department of Education from October 2021 to January 2025. Before entering politics, she worked as director of employee relations at Leon County Schools and as an associate attorney at Andrews & Kurth in Washington, D.C.
Graham said she continues the "Workdays" tradition established by her father, spending full shifts working alongside Floridians at their jobs. She said she performed more than 50 such workdays during her campaigns for Congress and governor.
On the issues
The following positions are drawn from Graham's questionnaire submitted to Palmetto-Cutler News and her campaign website.
Housing: Graham said the Jolly-Graham administration would work to lower homeowner's insurance costs by creating a state catastrophic fund. The fund would remove hurricane coverage from the private market, she said. She said they would fully fund the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund to expand workforce and affordable housing.
Health care: Graham said she would work with legislative leaders to expand Medicaid. She said the administration would increase access to primary care through community health clinics, nonprofits and federally qualified health centers.
Education: Graham said the administration plans a 10-year effort to raise teacher pay. All publicly funded choice schools would meet the same academic and service standards as public schools, she said. "Florida pays its teachers the least in the country. That breaks my heart," Graham said on her campaign website.
Redistricting: Graham said she would be open to exploring an independent redistricting commission to draw political boundaries. She said voters should have more meaningful choices in general elections, according to NBC Miami.
Environment: Graham said she and Jolly worked together in Congress to protect Florida's coastline and opposed oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. She listed protecting the state's environmental footprint among her priorities.
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