Richard Grayson

Richard Grayson was born in Brooklyn, New York, New York and graduated from Midwood High School in 1968. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College in 1973, a master's degree from the College of Staten Island in 1975, and a master's degree from Brooklyn College in 1976. He received a law degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 1994. Grayson's career experience includes working as a writer, college professor, law school administrator, and staff attorney. He has also served as a community college library technician, editor, and retail worker. Grayson has been affiliated with the following organizations:[1][2][3][4][5]

PEN America

The Authors Guild

Planned Parenthood

NAACP

Jews for Racial & Economic Justice

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U.S. Senate Alaska

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

The key is getting rid of Trump and the Republicans

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Key Republicans' cars![F***] right-wing keyboard warriors!The only keys Trump's lawyers ever find are the ones that accidentally unlock new federal indictments.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I'm a high-key resistance fighter against the Trump administration and other right-wing filth

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Victor Wembanyama

The villain in every superhero movie. They have great style, excellent monologue skills, and actually try to change the world instead of just maintaining the status quo.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Not being a crook, a scumbag or a moron

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Legislate, [motherf***er]!

What legacy would you like to leave?

No debt

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

At 14 in 1965, I was a cashier at The Slack Bar on Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn, for the summer. See my book, The Boy Who Could Draw Dr. King: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9436216-the-boy-who-could-draw-dr-king?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=iCqTUPO2DS&rank=1

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Putting a fitted sheet on a mattress.

What do you perceive to be the United States' greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

The greatest challenge facing the United States over the next decade is surviving the threat of deconstructed democratic institutions, the sudden repeal of basic science, and a dangerously over-active presidential Twitter/Truth Social account.

What qualities does the U.S. Senate possess that makes it unique as an institution?

It’s the only place in America where 100 people are granted the unique privilege of formally reviewing a president’s most chaotic decisions—just to watch him bypass them entirely with a recess appointment!

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

None, plus one or two nuns

What was the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember?

Eisenhower's second inauguration, which I watched after coming home from kindergarten, Jan. 20, 1956

U.S. House Arizona

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My first foray in politics was as a 13yo handing out "Get On The Johnson, Humphrey, Kennedy Team leaflets on NYC streetcorners in 1964. As a teenager and young man, I worked for numerous candidates, mostly Democrats like George McGovern (I was at the 1972 Democratic convention in Miami Beach), but also some liberal Republicans (NYC Mayor John Lindsay). I was active in the peace movement and in 1970 attended the first Earth Day demonstration and the Women's March commemorating the 50th anniversary of female suffrage. A longtime supporter of abortion and LGBT rights, I was on the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Council of North Central Florida and worked on the 1994 campaign to defeat an anti- gay referendum in Alachua County. (We lost bigly, but the courts later overturned the laws.) When no Democrat was on the ballot against Florida Republican Reps. Bilirakis, Ros-Lehniten and Crenshaw in Florida in 1994, 1996 and 2004, I ran write-in campaigns against them, as I did against otherwise-unopposed Rep. Gosar in AZ-09 in 2022 and against Republican Arizona State Senator Townsend in 2020. In 2014, no one would run for Wyoming's congressional seat against then-Rep. Lummis, so I volunteered, and without spending any money I won in Teton County while the Democratic candidates for governor and US senator lost. In every presidential election since 1980, when I supported my Nova Southeastern University Law School colleague John Anderson, I voted Democratic.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Restore our pre-2025 constitutional democracy, re-empower the legislative branch, and follow the rule of law as it existed before the present autocracy and dictatorship..Kill billionaires. By this I mean not literal murder, but taxation to get their wealth to a maximum of $999,999. I mean, everyone would like to kill some billionaires, especially those who think they are the boss of the rest of us and can terrorize U.S. government workers the way they do their own private business employees, but violence is beyond the pale.Support democracy and the rule of law not only at home but abroad. Restore agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the U.S. Agency for International Development and others that do much more good than harm. Stop harassing and demonizing our allies, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, our institutions of higher education, and those who protest against Donald Trump's fascist regime in the name of common decency..

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am passionate about the health of the world economy and how Donald Trump is wrecking it. As someone who started teaching college classes 50 years ago as an instructor of English at Long Island University and who has worked for half a century at community colleges and private and public, religious and secular, large and small universities and 4-year colleges in Arizona and five other states, as well as one Phoenix high school (Jess Schwartz) and some upstate New York elementary schools and worked as a teacher-trainer in the Miami-Dade County School District, I am passionate about educational policy at all levels. As a former staff attorney at the Center for Governmental Responsibility, I am passionate about public service. and our rights

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to anyone taller than 64 inches. I'd like to still be able to follow the examples in my 11th grade trigonometry textbook.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

This probably sounds egotistical, but if you want to know about my political philosophy in particular, you can read my own book of two decades ago, "Write-in: Diary of a Congressional Candidate in Florida's Fourth Congressional District," published serially at mcsweeneys.net and then in book form.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Above all, common human decency and belief in the dignity of all, fairness and the rule of law -- qualities completely lacking in Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

That is for others to judge.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

If you want to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, you should above all understand that the elective body, along with the U.S. Senate, must stop giving away all its power to the President under the ahistorical and regressive and un-American theory of "the unitary executive." There's a reason Article I of our Constitution -- which may or may not still be in effect (check tomorrow's news) -- is about the legislative branch. The House of Representatives' greatest power is the power of the purse: to raise and spend money for the benefit of all the people of this country, not to be a rubber stamp for a fascist dictator who think he can do it all. Stop being afraid of not getting re-elected, politicians! Your career means nothing; the direction of our country and the survival of the U.S.A. as a nation means everything..

What legacy would you like to leave?

No debt.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I was 14, and in the summer I worked alongside my grandfather, who was a tailor in a small men's pants store called The Slack Bar, owned by my uncle and his father-in-law, on Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn. Our customers were largely Black and Puerto Rican men, and our assistant manager was Black and our other tailor (free alterations!) was Puerto Rican. I sat at an ancient cash register and rang up their orders and took cash and returned change. I wrote a story about that job called "The Boy Who Could Draw Dr. King." https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9436216-the-boy-who-could-draw-dr-kinghttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9436216-the-boy-who-could-draw-dr-king

What is your favorite book? Why?

The favorite book I wrote is probably my first hardcover book, With Hitler in New York and Other Stories, from 1979. Favorite books include Mrs. Dalloway, Great Expectations, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Crying of Lot 49, Slaughterhouse-Five, Another Country, Dubliners, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Tropic of Cancer, Fear of Flying, The Forsyte Saga, Confessions of a Mask, Invvisible Man, Portnoy's Complaint, The Collected Stori,es of John Cheever, Couples, Franny and Zooey, The Great Gatsby, The Sound and the Fury, The Sun Also Rises, Ficciones, The Red and the Black, Anna Karenina, Notes From Underground, Women in Love, Point Counter Point, Wuthering Heights, A Doll's House, A Raisin in the Sun, Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, Dutchman, Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1876, Kaddish, The Razor's Edge, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The White Album, Man's Search for Meaning, Death in Venice, Twelfth Night, The Henriad, Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Misanthrope, The Bell Jar, Let the Great World Spin, The Power Broker, Hiroshima, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Communist Manifesto, The Wealth of Nations, Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, On Civil Disobedience, Notes of a Native Son, The Bald Soprano, No Exit, Of Human Bondage, The Quiet American, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Herzog, Mondo Barbie, Lightning Struck My Dick, Heart of Darkness, Troublemaker, The Canterbury Tales, The Old Testament, The New Testament, Democracy in America, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Mouse That Roared, Persepolis, Parable of the Sower, Crime in America, Soledad Brother, Angels in America, American Mischief, Advertisements for Myself, The Golden Bowl, The Handmaid's Tale, The House on Mango Street, Letters to a Young Poet, Getting to Yes, A Civil Action, The Soul of a New Machine, Gideon's Trumpet, My Brilliant Friend.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Richard Grayson

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

The theme from the 1966 TV show "The Pruitts of Southampton," which starred Phyllis Diller as the head of a wealthy Long Island family that has gone broke but must keep up appearances for the sake of the country, which presumably would sink into economic depression should news of the Pruitts' poverty become public knowledge. The song was sung by Phyllis Diller, who played the head of the family, which owed millions in unpaid taxes, and Reginald Gardner, who played Uncle Ned.

PD: Howcha do howcha do, howcha do my dear

What a LOVELY surprise, nice to see you here.

RG: All the bills have been long overdue, my dear.

PD: File them under I.O.U...

Howcha do, howcha do, Well HELLO, it's you!

Aren't they marvy-poo?

They belong to the internal revenue.

And they got us eating stew.

CHORUS: The Pruitts of Southampton,

Live like the richest folk,

But what the folk don't know is that

The Pruitts are flat broke!

PD: Howcha do, howcha do, howcha do, my dear

RG: We are out of champagne, and I'm stuck, my dear.

PD: Ask the butler to lend you a buck, my dear.

Howcha do, howcha do, howcha do...

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Wrestling

What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?

Tax and spending bills must originate in the House.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?

Generally, yes.

What do you perceive to be the United States' greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Survival -- scarily, mere survival. Will we still be a functioning constitutional democracy in a year or two? I don't know. This is the worst time of my 74-year-old life in terms of being a citizen of the United States of America. Can we avoid fascism and becoming a permanent authoritarian, lawless nation ruled by one man and a bunch of oligarchs?

Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?

Yes and no. They are always raising money for the next election, taking away from their work for the people. But midterm elections are a good check on presidential power.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

The President is subject to the term limits of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. End of story.

Is there a particular representative, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

John Quincy Adams, who served in the House following his presidency.

Both sitting representatives and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?

Sorry, no, but I haven't campaigned yet.

Tell us your favorite joke.

It's The Aristocrats and I can't repeat it here.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

Yes.

How should the U.S. House use its investigative powers?

Wisely, and not to score political points. Do not harass witnesses. Do not make speeches when you are allegedly asking questions. Do your homework ahead of committee hearings. Be open to all sides and above all do not try to hide the truth from the American people.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

None, although in the past I've been endorsed by Tucson Weekly, the Florida Dollar Stretcher, and the PACs of the United Auto Workers, National Organization for Women, and United Mine Workers of America.

What committees interest you?

Any and all.

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

The opposite of Elon Musk's, whose views at DOGE seem to be opaqueness and a complete lack of accountability to the people, to the Constitution, and to God, whom he mistakes himself for. In the 1990s I was a staff attorney in social policy at a research institution called the Center for Governmental Responsibility at the University of Florida College of Law. We worked on various issues from the environment to then-emergent democracies in eastern Europe and elsewhere to historic preservation and poverty law, and CGR was part of a groundbreaking lawsuit when a President tried to impound funds already approved into law by Congress, much as Dictator Trump is trying to do now. He may get away with it, given the corrupt nature of some of the U..S. Supreme Court's justices. Hopefully we can save American democracy, but it will be the biggest fight of our country's life since the Civil War.

Arizona House of Representatives

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My first foray in politics was as a 13yo handing out "Get On The Johnson, Humphrey, Kennedy Team leaflets on NYC streetcorners in 1964. As a teenager and young man, I worked for numerous candidates, mostly Democrats like George McGovern (I was at the 1972 Democratic convention in Miami Beach), but also some liberal Republicans (NYC Mayor John Lindsay). I was active in the peace movement and in 1970 attended the first Earth Day demonstration and the Women's March commemorating the 50th anniversary of female suffrage. A longtime supporter of abortion and LGBT rights, I was on the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Council of North Central Florida and worked on the 1994 campaign to defeat an anti- gay referendum in Alachua County. (We lost bigly, but the courts later overturned the laws.) When no Democrat was on the ballot against Florida Republican Reps. Bilirakis, Ros-Lehniten and Crenshaw in Florida in 1994, 1996 and 2004, I ran write-in campaigns against them, as I did against otherwise-unopposed Rep. Gosar in AZ-09 in 2022 and against Republican Arizona State Senator Townsend in 2020. In 2014, no one would run for Wyoming's congressional seat against then-Rep. Lummis, so I volunteered, and without spending any money I won in Teton County while the Democratic candidates for governor and US senator lost. In every presidential election since 1980, when I supported my Nova Southeastern University Law School colleague John Anderson, I voted Democratic.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Restore our pre-2025 constitutional democracy, re-empower the legislative branch, and follow the rule of law as it existed before the present autocracy and dictatorship..Kill billionaires. By this I mean not literal murder, but taxation to get their wealth to a maximum of $999,999. I mean, everyone would like to kill some billionaires, especially those who think they are the boss of the rest of us and can terrorize U.S. government workers the way they do their own private business employees, but violence is beyond the pale.upport democracy and the rule of law not only at home but abroad. Restore agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the U.S. Agency for International Development and others that do much more good than harm. Stop harassing and demonizing our allies, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, our institutions of higher education, and those who protest against Donald Trump's fascist regime in the name of common decency.. End the illegal war in Iran. Tear down everything Donald Trump wants to build as an ugly monument to his ugly self.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

am passionate about the health of the world economy and how Donald Trump is wrecking it. As someone who started teaching college classes 50 years ago as an instructor of English at Long Island University and who has worked for half a century at community colleges and private and public, religious and secular, large and small universities and 4-year colleges in Arizona and five other states, as well as one Phoenix high school (Jess Schwartz) and some upstate New York elementary schools and worked as a teacher-trainer in the Miami-Dade County School District, I am passionate about educational policy at all levels. As a former staff attorney at the Center for Governmental Responsibility, I am passionate about public service. and our rights

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Everyone over 5'4".

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Sanity

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Above all, common human decency and belief in the dignity of all, fairness and the rule of law -- qualities completely lacking in Elon Musk , Donald Trump and most of his appointees.

What legacy would you like to leave?

No debt.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I was 14, and in the summer I worked alongside my grandfather, who was a tailor in a small men's pants store called The Slack Bar, owned by my uncle and his father-in-law, on Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn. Our customers were largely Black and Puerto Rican men, and our assistant manager was Black and our other tailor (free alterations!) was Puerto Rican. I sat at an ancient cash register and rang up their orders and took cash and returned change. I wrote a story about that job called "The Boy Who Could Draw Dr. King." https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9436216-the-boy-who-could-draw-dr-kinghttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9436216-the-boy-who-could-draw-dr-king

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Hm. I can't think of anything..

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature?

Consensual.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

Having enough water so it will not be abandoned by human beings.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

Probably yes.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

No one, but in the past I have received the support of the PACs of the National Organization of Women, the United Auto Workers, Everytown for Gun Safety/Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and the the United Mine Workers of America.

What was the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember?

I was 5 and in kindergarten at P.S. 244 in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, just across the street from my family's apartment, during the 1956-1957 school year and I remember seeing a poster in the fall of the presidential and vice-presidential tickets with photos of President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, and the Democrats Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver. On January 20, since we got out of school at noon every day, I remember my mother was watching the inauguration of Eisenhower and Nixon, and I watched intently.

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My first foray in politics was as a 13yo handing out "Get On The Johnson, Humphrey, Kennedy Team leaflets on NYC streetcorners in 1964. As a teenager and young man, I worked for numerous candidates, mostly Democrats like George McGovern (I was at the 1972 Democratic convention in Miami Beach), but also some liberal Republicans (NYC Mayor John Lindsay). I was active in the peace movement and in 1970 attended the first Earth Day demonstration and the Women's March commemorating the 50th anniversary of female suffrage. A longtime supporter of abortion and LGBT rights, I was on the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Council of North Central Florida and worked on the 1994 campaign to defeat an anti- gay referendum in Alachua County. (We lost bigly, but the courts later overturned the laws.) When no Democrat was on the ballot against Florida Republican Reps. Bilirakis, Ros-Lehniten and Crenshaw in Florida in 1994, 1996 and 2004, I ran write-in campaigns against them, as I did against otherwise-unopposed Rep. Gosar in AZ-09 in 2022 and against Republican Arizona State Senator Townsend in 2020. In 2014, no one would run for Wyoming's congressional seat against then-Rep. Lummis, so I volunteered, and without spending any money I won in Teton County while the Democratic candidates for governor and US senator lost. In every presidential election since 1980, when I supported my Nova Southeastern University Law School colleague John Anderson, I voted Democratic.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Restore our pre-2025 constitutional democracy, re-empower the legislative branch, and follow the rule of law as it existed before the present autocracy and dictatorship.Kill billionaires. By this I mean not literal murder, but taxation to get their wealth to a maximum of $999,999. I mean, everyone would like to kill some billionaires, especially those who think they are the boss of the rest of us and can terrorize U.S. government workers the way they do their own private business employees, but violence is beyond the pale.Support democracy and the rule of law not only at home but abroad. Restore agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the U.S. Agency for International Development and others that do much more good than harm. Stop harassing and demonizing our allies, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, our institutions of higher education, and those who protest against Donald Trump's fascist regime in the name of common decency.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am passionate about the health of the world economy and how Donald Trump is wrecking it. As someone who started teaching college classes 50 years ago as an instructor of English at Long Island University and who has worked for half a century at community colleges and private and public, religious and secular, large and small universities and 4-year colleges in Arizona and five other states, as well as one Phoenix high school (Jess Schwartz) and some upstate New York elementary schools and worked as a teacher-trainer in the Miami-Dade County School District, I am passionate about educational policy at all levels. As a former staff attorney at the Center for Governmental Responsibility, I am passionate about public service. and our rights

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to anyone taller than 64 inches. I'd like to still be able to follow the examples in my 11th grade trigonometry textbook

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

This probably sounds egotistical, but if you want to know about my political philosophy in particular, you can read my own book of two decades ago, "Write-in: Diary of a Congressional Candidate in Florida's Fourth Congressional District," published serially at mcsweeneys.net and then in book form.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Above all, common human decency and belief in the dignity of all, fairness and the rule of law -- qualities completely lacking in Elon Musk, JD Vance and Donald Trump

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

That is for others to judge.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

If you want to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, you should above all understand that the elective body, along with the U.S. Senate, must stop giving away all its power to the President under the ahis