Bob Graham, ex-U.S. Senator and Florida Governor, passes away at 87

Former Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham passed away on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. He was 87 years old.

His daughter, Gwen, announced the death in a statement in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“We are deeply saddened to report the passing of a visionary leader, dedicated public servant, and even more importantly, a loving husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather: Bob Graham,” read the statement.

“As a legislator, Florida’s 38th Governor, and a United States Senator, Bob Graham devoted his life to the betterment of the world around him,” Graham’s daughter’s statement read. “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.”

Graham, a longtime Democrat, was first elected governor of Florida in 1979. He served two terms as governor and left in 1987. He was then elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1987 to 2005.

During his time as senator, Graham served on the Senate Intelligence Committee for a decade and led the congressional investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Graham would later go on to be a vocal critic of President George W. Bush’s administration and the Iraq War.

“The quagmire in Iraq is a distraction that the Bush administration, and the Bush administration alone, has created,” Graham said in 2003.

Notably, he was one of 23 senators who voted against Bush’s request from Congress to use military force against Iraq. He would go on to oppose the war for the rest of his time in the Senate.

“I’m afraid I never wavered from my belief that this was a distraction that was going to come to a bad end in Iraq and an even worse end in Afghanistan,” Graham said in an opinion article for the Huffington Post in 2008.

He was reportedly once considered a top candidate for the Democratic Party’s Vice Presidential nominee in 1988, 1992, 2000, and 2004. Graham launched an unsuccessful presidential run in December 2022 before ultimately withdrawing from the race in October 2023.

Graham moved on to the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida after retiring from the Senate in 2005. He was a staunch proponent of Florida’s public schools teaching more civics classes and spent much time trying to convince politicians to support such efforts, according to the Associated Press.

Later, in 2010, President Barack Obama appointed him to a special commission to investigate the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. Afterward, he appeared to focus on time with his family.

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“Bob Graham would tell people his favorite title was not Governor or Senator. It was the name his grandchildren gave him: Doodle. ‘When I’m really good, they call me Super Doodle,’ he liked to say,” his daughter’s post read.

“For 87 years, Bob Graham was so much more than really good,” the statement concluded. “He was a rare collection of public accomplishments and personal traits that combined to make him unforgettable. As his family, we will never forget his love for us, the love he had for Florida, the United States, and the world, and the love so many people showed him. We thank God for the gift of his life.”