Gwen Graham is running for Florida lieutenant governor on Democratic candidate David Jolly's gubernatorial ticket in the Nov. 3 general election.

Graham, a former U.S. representative and daughter of the late Gov. Bob Graham, said in a questionnaire submitted to the Lakewood Ranch Beacon that she and Jolly align on housing, healthcare, education and opposition to data centers. She said she is passionate about lowering the cost of living, rethinking education and addressing housing accessibility.

Lakewood Ranch voters will see the lieutenant governor race on their ballots.

Candidate information

  • Office sought: Florida lieutenant governor
  • Party: Democratic
  • Running mate: David Jolly
  • Born: Jan. 31, 1963, in Miami Lakes
  • Residence: Tallahassee, according to ClickOrlando, where she lives with her husband, Stephen Hurm
  • Education: Bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; juris doctorate from American University Washington College of Law
  • Family: Mother of three; daughter of the late Bob Graham, the former Florida governor and U.S. senator who died in 2024, according to WUSF

Experience and public service

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

In Congress, she served on the Armed Services and Agriculture committees. Graham said in her questionnaire that she and Jolly co-sponsored legislation with Sen. Bill Nelson and opposed oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico during their overlapping time in Congress.

She 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, according to state election records.

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 in her questionnaire that she built her early career around education, serving as a PTA president and school advisory council chair. She continues a "Workdays" tradition started by her father, spending full shifts working alongside Floridians at their jobs. She performed more than 50 such workdays during her campaigns for Congress and governor.

Jolly named Graham as his running mate on June 10, according to WUSF. The pair filed qualifying paperwork in Tallahassee the same day.

On the issues

Housing: Graham said in her questionnaire that the Jolly-Graham administration would work to lower homeowner's 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.

Education: Graham said on her campaign website that "Florida pays its teachers the least in the country. That breaks my heart." She said the administration would pursue a 10-year effort to raise teacher pay and require all publicly funded choice schools to meet the same academic and service standards as public schools.

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

Redistricting: Graham said she would be open to exploring an independent redistricting commission to draw political boundaries, according to NBC Miami. She argued that voters should have more meaningful choices in general elections rather than having many races effectively decided during party primaries.

Other candidates in the lieutenant governor race include Bryan Avila (Republican), Nicole Skelly (Libertarian), Benjiman Rojas, Joe Van Vactor, Juan Santana, Rachel Rodriguez and Ruben A. Coto, all listed with No Party Preference, according to BallotReady election data.