Daniel Robert Graham (born November 9, 1936) is the senior U. S. Senator from Florida and a member of the Democratic Party. Before entering the Senate in 1987, he served two terms as the 38th Governor of Florida.
Personal background
He was born in Dade County, Florida. He married the former Adele Khoury, of Miami Shores, in 1959. They have four daughters: Gwen Graham Logan, Cissy Graham McCullough, Suzanne Graham Gibson and Kendall Graham Elias. The Grahams also have 10 grandchildren.
Graham is the son of Ernest "Cap" Graham, a Florida state senator, mining engineer, and dairy/cattleman, and Hilda Simmons Graham, a schoolteacher. He is the youngest of four children. His siblings are the late Philip Graham; William Graham of Miami Lakes, Florida; and the late Mary Crow.
Graham was the student body president of Miami Senior High School, graduating in 1955. He received a bachelor's degree in 1959 from the University of Florida, where he was Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to receive an LLB from Harvard Law School in 1962.
Workdays
Bob Graham began Workdays in 1974, teaching a semester of civics at Carol City Senior High School in Miami while serving in the Florida Senate. He performed 100 Workdays in 1986 during his first successful campaign for governor. Since then, he has completed 386 Workdays – more than a year’s worth of days spent laboring side-by-side with the people he represents. His Workdays are an extension of his belief in a personal style of governing.
Graham has continued doing Workdays throughout his tenure as governor and in the United States Senate. His jobs have included service as a police officer, railroad engineer, construction worker, fisherman, garbageman, factory worker, busboy, and teacher. On No. 365, he checked in customers, handled baggage and helped serve passengers on USAirways.
Bob Graham was elected Governor of Florida in 1978 and reelected in 1982. His supporters at the time dubbed themselves "Graham crackers." He was then elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 and reelected in 1992 and 1998, by increasing majorities each time.
He has a quirky habit of keeping a detailed log of his daily activities on color-coded notebooks, which some say may have cost him a spot on past vice-presidential tickets.
Early in 2003, Graham underwent heart surgery and received a transplanted valve from the heart of a Holstein cow.
Graham announced his candidacy for President of the United States in the 2004 election on the Democratic ticket on February 27, 2003. However, on October 6, 2003, he announced (with polls showing him in last place among a field of ten candidates) he was ending his presidential campaign, saying he started his campaign too late and had trouble raising money. In November, he announced that he would not seek another term in the Senate.
Graham has since expressed a desire to start a special institute in Florida that would train future political leaders.
Political career
Graham was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1966 and was reelected in 1968. He was elected to the Florida State Senate in 1970 and was reelected 1974.Business career
The Graham dairy in Miami Lakes was redeveloped into a residential and commercial community during the 1970s and 1980s, under the leadership of Bob Graham's brother William. To this day, Bob Graham still owns a significant share of the Graham Companies, which is estimated to be worth around $10 million. To avoid a potential conflict of interest, his various investments, including his share in the Miami Lakes development, are managed by a proxy and reported to Graham at the end of each year. Graham's total net worth is estimated to be somewhere between $25 and $100 million.