Chuck Graham DEMDemocrat

Charles Graham (February 24, 1965 – May 19, 2020) was an American politician in the Democratic Party who represented the 19th Senate District in the Missouri General Assembly, which includes the city of Columbia, Missouri, where he lived. Graham was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1987 with a B.S. in journalism.He was first elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1996, and served there through 2005. He was first elected to the Missouri State Senate in 2004, and served as the party's Assistant Minority Floor Leader. He had been mentioned as a possible candidate in the 2006 United States Senate election, but dropped out in support of then-State Auditor Claire McCaskill. He served on the following committees: Education Gubernatorial Appointments Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Pensions, Veterans' Affairs and General LawsIn 1998, Graham proposed a bill which would have permitted death row prisoners awaiting execution to donate organs (kidneys or bone marrow) in exchange for a commutation of their death sentence. He was a strong supporter of stem-cell research. On October 20, 2007, Graham was arrested by the Columbia Police Department on suspicion of driving while intoxicated after rear-ending a vehicle near his home in Southwest Columbia. His license was subsequently suspended.Graham was a paraplegic after he had an automobile accident at 16.