Alan Grayson

Alan Mark Grayson (born March 13, 1958) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2009 to 2011 and from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was defeated for reelection in 2010 by Republican Daniel Webster; who went on to lose the general election to incumbent Republican Marco Rubio. In 2018, Grayson entered the race for the 9th congressional district. He was defeated in the Democratic primary by his successor Darren Soto, 66–34%. In 2020, Grayson was a write-in candidate in , saying that he did not expect to win the election. On March 27, 2021, Grayson announced his candidacy for the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Florida to challenge Rubio. On June 14, 2022, Grayson announced that he would drop his bid for Senate and instead run in the open race for , in which he lost the Democratic primary. In 2024, he unsuccessfully ran for the Florida Senate, finishing third in the primary. Grayson ran in the 2025 Florida Senate special election, finishing third in the Democratic primary. He filed to run in the 2026 United States Senate special election in Florida. Grayson did not qualify for the Senate primary ballot and instead ran in the 2026 election for Florida's 7th congressional district.

Early life and education Grayson was born in the Bronx, New York City, New York, to Dorothy Ann (née Sabin) and Daniel Franklin Grayson (né Gurchinsky). He grew up in Adee Towers, a building financed by the Mitchell–Lama Housing Program, and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1975. Grayson worked his way through Harvard College as a janitor and nightwatchman, and was also a features reporter for the Boston Phoenix. He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a Special Concentration in Urban Studies in 1978.

Grayson wrote his master's thesis on gerontology. In 1986, he helped found the non-profit Alliance for Aging Research in Washington, D.C., and served as an officer of the organization for more than twenty years. The jury verdict was more than $13 million, which was upheld on appeal in April 2009.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2006

In 2006, Grayson first entered into electoral politics, losing the 2006 Democratic primary for Florida's 8th congressional district to Charlie Stuart, a prominent local businessman and conservative Democrat. Conservative Newsweek columnist George Will called Grayson "America's worst politician". Grayson was also heavily targeted in attack ads funded by groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the 60 Plus Association. Grayson ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for the newly created 9th District in Central Florida.

On November 6, 2012, Grayson defeated Todd Long, 63–37%, to return to Congress after a one-term absence. He described his victory as "the biggest comeback in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives." Although he ran in two different districts, Grayson claimed the House historian had told him that the shift from a 56–38% loss in 2010 to a 63–37% victory in 2012 was the biggest comeback in congressional history.

2014

Grayson was challenged in the Democratic primary by Nick Ruiz, a professor from the University of Central Florida. He overcame this challenge comfortably, 74–26%.

The Republican challenger in the general election was Carol Platt, with independent Marko Milakovich also standing. Grayson was returned to Congress with 54% of the vote.

Tenure

2009–2011 Grayson was the second Democrat to represent Florida's 8th congressional district since its formation after the 1970 census (it was the 5th District from 1973 to 1993 and has been the 8th since 1993).

Grayson is considered a progressive Democrat. He supported Barack Obama in 2008. He was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, of which he was vice-chairman. He said, "We need to live within our means. We need to eliminate wasteful spending. If we did those two simple things, we would not need to raise the debt limit." Public Option Act (H.R. 4789) War Is Making You Poor Act (H.R. 5353) Shareholder Protection Act (H.R. 4790) Paid Vacation Act of 2009 (H.R. 2564)

2013–2017 Known in his first term for making incendiary comments about Republicans, Grayson began to tone down his rhetoric and focused on working with Republicans to pass amendments that "appeal to the libertarian streak in the GOP". He lobbied colleagues personally and in July 2013, David Weigel of Slate magazine called him "the most effective member of the House" and said that he was approaching "an unheralded title: The congressman who's passed more amendments than any of his 434 peers."

In October 2013, his campaign sent out a fundraising email that compared the Tea Party to the Ku Klux Klan. It used the image of a burning cross as the "T" in Tea Party. Matt Gorman of the National Republican Congressional Committee described the e-mail as "hateful words and imagery". Grayson said he saw "overwhelming evidence that the Tea Party is the home of bigotry and discrimination in America today, just as the KKK was for an earlier generation."

Political positions

Grayson has generally been described as a liberal or progressive Democrat. Profiles of Grayson have also emphasized his anti-establishment and populist style; The Progressive characterized his approach as a form of Democratic populism combining egalitarianism, policy detail, and political theater. Despite his identification with the Democratic left, Grayson was also noted during his second House tenure for working with libertarian-leaning Republicans on selected issues, particularly Federal Reserve oversight. He served as a vice-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries, citing a shared goal of building a grassroots movement against the political influence of billionaires and multinational corporations.

Federal Reserve During his first term in office, Grayson supported Ron Paul's Audit the Fed legislation. The bill was co-sponsored by eight other members of the House. On March 26, the bill was approved by the House Financial Services Committee by a vote of 38–22 and on April 1, the bill was passed by the full House of Representatives by a vote of 247–171,

Grayson was a co-sponsor of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, which would provide additional provisions to audit the Federal Reserve, including removing several key exemptions.

Grayson supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and has been outspoken in favor of extending unemployment benefits for Americans who have lost their jobs, arguing that the government had never cut off unemployment insurance when the unemployment rate was higher than eight percent. Grayson also voted for FDA oversight of tobacco products, which would give the FDA power to regulate tobacco.

Grayson has worked to combat federal waste, fraud, and abuse. In the September 6, 2009 edition of The New York Times, columnist Gretchen Morgenson thanked Grayson for uncovering the fact that, due to the federal bailout of mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae, taxpayer money had been funding the legal defense fees for former top executives at the institution. Grayson requested information about these legal costs after a June 2009 hearing of the House Financial Services Committee. Grayson's work uncovered that, between September 6, 2008, and July 21, 2009, taxpayers spent $6.3 million defending Fannie Mae executives Franklin Raines, J. Timothy Howard, and Leanne Spencer. Taxpayers paid an additional $16.8 million to cover legal expenses of workers at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, Fannie's former regulator.

In September 2009, Grayson used a parliamentary maneuver called an "extension of remarks" to provide crucial instruction on H.R. 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, a bill that, among other things, included a provision that prohibited funding for ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). Grayson's extension of remarks directed that the legislation defund any organization that cheats the federal government, not just ACORN. The defunding measure passed the House with a final vote of 253–171. Grayson also encouraged the public to report companies covered by the bill and set up a method to report offending companies via his Congressional website. After demands from Republicans that he apologize, he defended his comment and in a House floor speech stated, "I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America." He was then further lambasted for his use of the word holocaust by Jewish spokespersons across the nation. Grayson, who is Jewish, apologized to the Anti-Defamation League for those offended by his generic use of holocaust. a website to "memorialize Americans who die because they don't have health insurance". He subsequently read stories of the dead submitted through the Names of the Dead site on the House floor. He has always supported same-sex marriage and said in an interview in 2013, "the propaganda that somehow gay marriage makes straight marriage bad for everyone is just farcical to me. I just don't understand the logic of it."

Grayson voted in support of the Hate Crimes Expansion Act, which expands the definition of hate crimes and strengthens enforcement of hate crime laws. He also voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Grayson supported the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that allows victims of wage discrimination to sue for punitive damages. The bill would provide for a $50 million "Hurricane Research Center" in Central Florida, and Grayson claimed it would immediately generate new jobs.

Foreign affairs Grayson has been an outspoken critic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In May 2010, he introduced the War Is Making You Poor Act. The bill would require the president to fund the wars from the Department of Defense's base budget. The bill does not necessitate an end to the wars or mandate a cut-off date. In addition to the tax cuts, the bill would cut the federal deficit by $15.9 billion. He has rejected what he calls "warmongering", saying: "It's simply not our responsibility. We're not the world's policeman." Instead, he called for a focus on humanitarian efforts and solving domestic problems. He launched DontAttackSyria.com, where he began gathering signatures for his petition calling on Congress to vote against authorizing military action against Syria, and was "whipping votes" in the House.

Committee assignments

2013–2017 Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere Committee on Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Energy Subcommittee on Environment

2009–2011 Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics

Personal life Grayson was ranked as the 11th-wealthiest member of Congress in 2010, based on financial disclosure forms with a net worth of $31.41 million, and a pending claim against the now-defunct Derivium Capital for at least $25 million, according to Roll Call. While pursuing the whistleblower cases, Grayson worked from a home office in Orlando, where he lived with his second wife, Lolita Grayson, and their five children. and Alan Grayson asked a court in Orlando to annul the marriage a year later. The Orange County Sheriff's Office said that Grayson would not be charged in connection with a March 2014 domestic incident after investigators determined there was no probable cause to support the allegation that he had pushed his wife. In April 2015 the Graysons agreed to settle the dispute and annul their 25-year marriage. Lolita Grayson accused Alan Grayson of domestic abuse that lasted over the decades of their marriage; Alan Grayson denied the charges.

On May 31, 2016, Alan Grayson married his third wife, Dr. Dena Minning. In 2016, Minning ran for the US House seat Grayson was vacating to pursue his Senate run. She was defeated in the Democratic primary.

In December 2019, Grayson released a book titled High Crimes: The Impeachment of Donald Trump.