For now, her biggest rival is Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Gwen Graham, the former congresswoman and daughter of former Florida Gov. Bob Graham, announced her candidacy for her father’s old job on Tuesday in hopes of becoming the first woman to hold the office and the first governor who lived in the Governor’s Mansion as a kid.
Graham is the third major Democrat to announce her candidacy for the office, which her party hasn’t controlled since 1999.
As she kicked off her bid, Graham took aim not at fellow Democrats, but at the legacy of the GOP’s rule in Tallahassee, outgoing Gov. Rick Scott and President Trump.
"Instead of passing commonsense economic policies, like raising the minimum wage and paid sick leave, Rick Scott repeats, 'Jobs, jobs, jobs!' — as in you’ll need three jobs just to get by," Graham said, faulting Scott and President Donald Trump for doing nothing to fight global warming.
Graham, who served a single term in Congress until her district became overwhelmingly Republican after it was completely redrawn by Florida Supreme Court order, pledged to end high-stakes testing in the state and to spend more money on education.
Graham, a mother of three grown children, drew heavily on her past as a PTA mom and a longtime labor lawyer for the Leon County School District in Tallahassee.
Though from Tallahassee, Graham made her announcement in Miami Gardens near Miami Carol City Senior High School, because it was where her father, in 1974, had his first full “Workday” with regular Floridians to get a feel for how the people of the state lived, worked and thought.
Bob Graham was later elected governor in 1978; Gwen Graham then moved to the Governor’s Mansion from Miami Lakes as an 11th grader. Bob Graham served two full terms as governor and then was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 2005.
Gwen Graham speaks sparingly, though admiringly, of her father in public. He is her top adviser and a top campaign asset, thanks to the goodwill of longtime Democrats who fondly remember his time in Tallahassee and his environmental activism that continues to this day.
Like her father, Gwen Graham held her own “Workdays” in Congress and, on Monday, returned to Carol City High for her first “Workday” of her gubernatorial campaign. She said the high school has been labeled a “D” but faulted the influence of the school-choice “education industry in Tallahassee” unleashed by former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.
Graham’s surprise appearance in Miami Gardens, prompted the mayor of the majority black city to say it was an “interesting” decision. He said he hoped she wasn’t just using the visit solely as a backdrop for a campaign photo-op.
“We welcome everyone to Miami Gardens to talk about the issues that create a greater and better Florida. That's the policy of moving forward not of photographs,” said Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert, a Democrat who’s neutral in the race.
The issue of race will likely play heavily in the Democratic primary. Graham’s fellow Tallahassee resident, capital city Mayor Andrew Gillum, is African-American and is counting on strong support from black voters, who account for about 28 percent of the registered Democrats. All the other candidates and rumored candidates are white: Orlando businessman Chris King, Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan and Miami Beach Mayor Phil Levine. Morgan and Levine have not announced their candidacies.
On the Republican side, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam made his candidacy official Monday. No other Republicans have entered the race.
For now, Graham’s biggest rival is Gillum, the first major candidate to announce. The two are a contrast in styles.
In Congress, Graham voted like a North Florida centrist and was ranked as Florida’s most independent member of Congress in a 2016 CQ Roll Call analysis. Nationwide, Graham was ranked as the ninth-most independent representative in the U.S. House.
"I was proud to have been recognized as the most independent member of the Florida," she said in speaking to reporters after her speech. "And that’s something I will bring to my service as governor."
To earn the moniker of a centrist, Graham sometimes voted with Republicans — including supporting the Keystone XL Pipeline, easing financial regulations imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act and backing a measure that would have increased the number of hours an employee would have to work to be considered full time under Obamacare.
Weeks before Graham made her announcement official, progressive activists and supporters of her Democratic rivals began highlighting those votes as problematic in a Florida Democratic primary.
“The Grahams have always been prominent in Miami and in the state. But in today’s political climate we don’t need prominent we need progressive,” Erika Grohoski, outreach chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party and a group that calls itself the People's Progressive Caucus.
The liberal abortion-rights group Emily’s List, meanwhile, spared no time endorsing Graham.
Graham, who has anticipated the knocks on her record, told the Associated Press that she believes voters will understand she won’t always agree with them. But they trust her.
“I think that's what people want more than anything. They don't want someone who's trying to fashion a message to be ideologically one way or another,” Graham said. “They just want someone they can feel good about again and they can trust again."