Former Florida Gov. Bob Graham Dies at 87: Three-Term Democratic Senator Remembered as ‘Devoted Person in Public Service’

Former Florida Gov. Bob Graham, who chaired the Intelligence Committee after the 2001 terrorist attacks and opposed the invasion of Iraq, has died at the age of 87.

His family announced the death Tuesday in a statement his daughter Gwen Graham released on X. His wife, Adele, was by his side when he died at a retirement community in Gainesville.

Graham, who served three terms in the Senate, made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, emphasizing his opposition to the Iraq invasion.

But his bid was delayed by heart surgery in January 2003. Never able to gain enough traction with voters to catch up, he bowed out that October. He did not seek re-election in 2004 and was replaced by Republican Mel Martinez.

His wife Adele told the Tallahassee Democrat: ‘We are very close and love him so much, so proud of him. He was an absolutely dedicated person in public service to get things done for everyone.’

Graham was remembered as a ‘visionary leader and dedicated public servant’.

A man of many quirks, Graham perfected the political “workday” gimmick of spending a day doing various jobs from stable keeper to FBI agent.

He kept a meticulous diary, noting almost everyone he spoke to, everything he ate, the TV shows he watched, and even his golf scores.

But he closed the notebooks to the media during his short-lived presidential run.

Graham was among the earliest opponents of the Iraq war, saying it diverted America’s focus from the fight against terrorism centered in Afghanistan. He also criticized President George W. Bush for not having an occupation plan in Iraq after the US military ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Graham said Bush took the United States into the war by exaggerating claims about the danger posed by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, which were never found. Graham said Bush distorted intelligence data, arguing it was more serious than the sexual misconduct that led to President Clinton’s impeachment in the late 1990s.

That spurred Graham to launch his brief presidential run.

“The gold in Iraq is a distraction created by the Bush administration and the Bush administration alone,” Graham said in 2003.

As a politician, few were better. Florida voters hardly considered him the wealthy Harvard-educated lawyer he was.

Graham’s political career spanned five decades, beginning with his election to the Florida House of Representatives in 1966.

He won a state senate seat in 1970, was elected governor in 1978, and was re-elected in 1982. Four years later, he won the first of three terms in the US Senate, unseating Republican incumbent Paula Hawkins.

Graham remained very popular with Florida voters and won re-election by wide margins in 1992 and 1998, carrying 63 of 67 counties.

Even when he was in Washington, Graham never took his eye off the state and leadership in Tallahassee.

When Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republican-controlled Legislature eliminated the Board of Regents in 2001, Graham saw it as a move to politicize the state university system. He led a successful petition the next year for a state constitutional amendment creating the Board of Regents to assume the role of regents.

Daniel Robert Graham was born on November 9, 1936 in Coral Gables, where his father, Ernest ‘Cap’ Graham, had moved from South Dakota and established a large dairy business. Young Bob milked cows, built fences and scooped manure as a teenager. One of his half-brothers, Phillip Graham, was the publisher of The Washington Post and Newsweek until he committed suicide in 1963, just a year after Bob Graham graduated from Harvard Law.

In 1966, he was elected to the Florida Legislature, where he focused heavily on education and health issues.

But Graham got off to a shaky start as Florida’s chief executive, being dubbed ‘Gov. Jello’ for some early indecision. He shook that label through his handling of several serious crises.

As governor, he also signed several death warrants, founded the Save the Manatee Club with entertainer Jimmy Buffett, and led efforts to establish several environmental programs.

Graham pushed through a bond program to buy beaches and barrier islands threatened by development, and also started the Save Our Everglades program to protect the state’s water supply, wetlands and endangered species.

Graham was also known for her 408 ‘working days’, including stints as a housewife, boxing announcer, flight attendant and arsonist.

“This has been a very important part of my development as a public official, my learning on a very human level what the people of Florida expect, what they want, what their aspirations are, and then I try to interpret that and make it a policies that will improve their lives, Graham said in 2004 when he quit his last job wrapping Christmas presents.

After leaving public life in 2005, Graham spent much of his time at a public policy center named after him at the University of Florida, pushing the legislature to require more community service classes in the state’s public schools.

Graham was one of five members selected to an independent commission by President Barack Obama in June 2010 to investigate a massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that threatened marine life and beaches along several southeastern Gulf states.