Gwen Graham, daughter of former U.S. Senator and Florida Governor Bob Graham, announced her candidacy to serve as the state’s next governor during an early May press conference in Miami Gardens.
“We do not have time for typical politics, because this is the time to paint Florida’s future in sharp lines, and bold colors,” Graham said.
With her family by her side, she said after almost 20 years of enduring a state government with the wrong priorities for the wrong people, she would renew Florida’s education system, environment and economy.
Citing her experience as a working mother, PTA president and school board official, Graham said she is determined to end the lottery shell game diverting funds from Florida schools and high-stakes testing.
Graham announced her campaign next to Miami Carol City Senior High School, where she spent a full Workday alongside educators teaching students, the same high school where her father performed his first Workday in 1974.
“As governor, I won’t just criticize this culture of teaching to the test, I will end it,” she said. “Because high-stakes standardized testing has led us to one-size-fits-all learning. Yet our children, parents, and teachers are not one-dimensional. Our children, parents, and teachers are not standardized. I will work with the legislature and do whatever it takes, including the governor’s line-item veto to end high-stakes testing.”
She also shared her vision for Florida’s economy and environment. Graham called for Florida to raise the minimum wage, provide paid sick leave, invest in infrastructure, and diversity Florida’s economy.
On the environment, Graham said she would use Amendment One funds to protect sensitive land and water, fight oil drilling off the state’s beaches, and ban fracking in Florida.
She addressed the threat climate change poses to the state. “We all know climate change is real. It’s already harming our state – tides are rising in Miami and fires are ravaging our forests.
In 2014, Gwen Graham was one of just two Democrats in the entire country to beat an incumbent Republican Congressmen.
She has three children, Sarah, Graham and Mark Ernest, and is married to Stephen D. Hurm, a former law enforcement officer and attorney, who currently serves as a faculty member at Florida State University.