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.
In 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.[5][6][7] 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.[8]
Graham was a paraplegic after he had an automobile accident at age 16. He received national attention during a 2008 televised campaign rally in Columbia. Then vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden asked him to stand up and was apparently unaware of his paralysis. When Biden realized that Graham could not stand up, he asked for the crowd to stand up for him.[9]
On November 4, 2008, Graham lost his seat after being defeated in the general election by Republican Kurt Schaefer. After the 2008 election, he announced that he had no future plans to run for public office.