TALLAHASSEE — Bob Graham, a former governor, U.S. senator and one of the most popular politicians in Florida history, has died. He was 87.
Graham’s family announced the death Tuesday in a statement posted on X by his daughter Gwen Graham. The cause of death was not revealed. Graham suffered a stroke in 2020.
“Bob Graham devoted his life to the betterment of the world around him,” the statement said. “The memorials to that devotion are everywhere — from the Everglades and other natural treasures he was determined to preserve, to the colleges and universities he championed with his commitment to higher education, to the global understanding he helped to foster through his work with the intelligence community, and so many more.”
On Wednesday, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered flags at government buildings throughout the state to be flown at half-staff in Graham’s honor.
“We mourn the passing of Bob Graham,” DeSantis said at an event in South Florida. “He was a great Floridian. He served the state with honor and integrity and really made a great contribution.”
Graham was a “colleague, friend, and devoted Floridian whose nearly 50 years of service to his beloved home state and to our country have made America a safer and stronger nation,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “He was full of humor and humanity, and I’m grateful for the support that he gave me over the years.”
Graham gained national prominence as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks and as an early critic of the Iraq war.
Graham, who served three terms in the Senate, made an unsuccessful bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, emphasizing his opposition to the Iraq invasion.
But his bid was delayed by heart surgery in January 2003, and he never gained enough traction with voters to catch up, bowing out that October. He didn’t seek re-election in 2004 and was replaced by Republican Mel Martinez, a former Orange County mayor.
— Gwen Graham (@GwenGraham) April 17, 2024
Graham perfected what he called “workdays” — spending a day doing various jobs from horse stall mucker to FBI agent, events that garnered him news media attention all across the state.
Steve Schale, a Democratic consultant, recalled Graham’s common touch in a post on X.
“I have so many wonderful memories of Bob — but I loved being with him when he was with everyday people,” Schale wrote. “Those work days really molded how he saw his fellow Floridians. I never saw him look down on anyone — or look over anyone’s shoulders. He was, in every sense, a good man.”
He kept a meticulous diary, noting almost everyone he spoke with, everything he ate, the TV shows he watched, and even his golf scores. Graham said the notebooks were a work tool.
“I review them for calls to be made, memos to be dictated, meetings I want to follow up on and things people promise to do,” he said.
Graham was among the earliest opponents of the Iraq war, saying it diverted America’s focus on the battle against terrorism centered in Afghanistan. He was also critical of President George W. Bush for failing to have an occupation plan in Iraq after the U.S. military threw out Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Graham said Bush took the United States into the war by exaggerating claims of the danger presented by the Iraqi weapons of destruction that were never found. He said Bush distorted intelligence data and argued it was more serious than the sexual misconduct issues that led the House to impeach President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s.
“The quagmire in Iraq is a distraction that the Bush administration, and the Bush administration alone, has created,” Graham said in 2003.
During his 18 years in Washington, Graham worked well with colleagues from both parties, particularly Florida Republican Connie Mack during their dozen years together in the Senate.
As a politician, few were better. Florida voters hardly considered him the wealthy Harvard-educated attorney that he was.
Graham’s political career spanned five decades, beginning with his election to the Florida House in 1966.
He won a state Senate seat in 1970, was elected governor in 1978 and re-elected in 1982. Four years later, he won the first of three terms in the U.S. Senate when he ousted incumbent Republican Paula Hawkins. He left the governor’s office with an approval rating of 83%.
Graham won re-election to the Senate by wide margins in 1992 and 1998 when he carried 63 of 67 counties. In that latter election, he defeated Charlie Crist, who later served as a Republican governor from 2007 to 2011.
“He blew me out of the water, and I came to know even more so why during … the campaign,” Crist said Tuesday night. “I learned to respect him even more than I already had, and love him for the good, decent man that he was.”
As governor, Graham strongly supported the death penalty, sending murderer John Spenkelink to the electric chair in May 1979 after the U.S. Supreme Court revived capital punishment. In all, he signed 16 death warrants.
Daniel Robert Graham was born Nov. 9, 1936, in Coral Gables, where his father, Ernest “Cap” Graham, had moved from South Dakota and established a large dairy operation. Young Bob milked cows, built fences and scooped manure as a teenager.
He was president of the student body at Miami Senior High School and attended the University of Florida, graduating in 1959.
Graham founded the Save the Manatee Club with singer and friend Jimmy Buffett, who died in September, and led efforts to establish several environmental programs.
He pushed through a bond program to buy beaches and barrier islands threatened by development and started the Save Our Everglades program to protect the state’s water supply, wetlands and endangered species.
Graham also was known for his 408 “workdays,” including stints as a housewife, boxing ring announcer, flight attendant and arson investigator.
“This has been a very important part of my development as a public official, my learning at a very human level what the people of Florida expect, what they want, what their aspirations are and then trying to interpret that and make it policy that will improve their lives,” said Graham in 2004 as he completed his final job as a Christmas gift wrapper.
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 and urging the Legislature to require more civics classes in the state’s public schools.
Staff writer Steven Lemongello, the Associated Press and News Service of Florida contributed to this report.
