Gwen Graham, a former U.S. representative and daughter of the late Florida Gov. Bob Graham, is running for lieutenant governor on the David Jolly ticket. The Democrat is one of eight candidates certified for the lieutenant governor race in the Nov. 3 general election.

Graham was born in Miami Lakes. Jolly named her as his running mate on June 10, and the pair filed qualifying paperwork in Tallahassee the same day, according to WUSF.

Candidate information

Full name: Gwen Graham

Date of birth: Jan. 31, 1963

Birthplace: Miami Lakes, Florida

Residence: Tallahassee, Florida

Party: Democratic

Family: Married to Steve Hurm. Mother of three children. Daughter of the late Bob Graham, who served as Florida's governor and as a U.S. senator before his death in 2024.

Education: Graduate of Leon High School in Tallahassee (class of 1980). Bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1984). Juris doctorate from American University Washington College of Law (1988).

Experience and public service

Graham represented Florida's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House after winning election in 2014. She defeated Republican incumbent Steve Southerland, one of only two Democrats nationally to unseat an incumbent Republican that year, according to Wikipedia. Her term ended Jan. 3, 2017.

In Congress, Graham said she served on the Armed Services and Agriculture committees. She said she focused on public education, veterans issues and the environment.

Graham ran for Florida governor in 2018, finishing second in a seven-person Democratic primary with 31.3% of the vote. She lost to Andrew Gillum by 47,289 votes.

She served as assistant secretary for legislation and congressional affairs at the U.S. Department of Education from Oct. 8, 2021, to Jan. 20, 2025.

Before entering politics, Graham 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 served as a PTA president and school advisory council chair.

Graham continues the "Workdays" tradition established by her father, spending full shifts working alongside Floridians at their jobs. She performed more than 50 workdays during her campaigns for Congress and governor.

On the issues

The following positions reflect Graham's own statements from her questionnaire and campaign website.

Housing and insurance: Graham said the Jolly-Graham administration would work to lower homeowners insurance costs by creating a state catastrophic fund that removes hurricane coverage from the private market. She said they would fully fund the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund to expand workforce and affordable housing and remove unnecessary barriers to increasing supply.

Public education and teacher pay: "Florida pays its teachers the least in the country. That breaks my heart. And it's the wrong direction for Florida's future," Graham said on her campaign website. She said the administration would pursue a 10-year effort to raise teacher pay. She said all publicly funded choice schools should meet the same academic and service standards.

Healthcare: Graham said she would work with legislative leaders to expand Medicaid and access to primary care through community health clinics, nonprofits and federally qualified health centers.

Congressional redistricting: Graham told NBC Miami 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 rather than having many races effectively decided during party primaries.

Data centers: In her questionnaire, Graham said she and Jolly oppose data centers in Florida.

Other candidates

The other certified candidates for Florida lieutenant governor are Bryan Avila (Republican), Benjiman Rojas (no party preference), Joe Van Vactor (no party preference), Juan Santana (no party preference), Nicole Skelly (Libertarian), Rachel Rodriguez (no party preference) and Ruben A. Coto (no party preference).