Alan Grayson

Alan Mark Grayson (born March 13, 1958) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 8th congressional district from 2009 to 2011 and Florida's 9th congressional district from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was defeated for reelection in 2010 by Republican Daniel Webster; he was then reelected in 2012 for a second, non-consecutive term in the U.S. House of Representatives in another district, defeating Republican Todd Long. In 2016, Grayson decided not to run for reelection to his House seat in order to run for the U.S. Senate. He was defeated 59–18% in the Democratic primary by fellow Representative Patrick Murphy, 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 Florida's 6th congressional district, 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 Florida's 10th congressional district, 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.