Redistricted into a seat encompassing portions of northern Dade and southern Broward County, Graham was reelected to District 33 in 1972 and 1976.

Riley then arranged for Graham to teach a semester of civics at Miami Carol City Senior High School.

[9] Graham was elected to the governorship of Florida in 1978 after a seven-way Democratic primary race in which he initially placed second to Robert L. Shevin.

[5] Graham also launched the most extensive environmental protection program in Florida history, focused on preserving endangered lands.

During his tenure, thousands of acres of threatened and environmentally important lands were brought into state ownership for permanent protection.

[5] Graham served 10 years on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which he chaired during and after 9/11 and the run-up to the Iraq war.

As chair of the Intelligence Committee, Graham opposed the War in Iraq and was one of the 23 senators to vote against President George W. Bush's request for authorization of the use of military force.

After meeting with military leaders in February 2002 and requesting and reviewing a National Intelligence Estimate, he said he "felt we were being manipulated and that the result was going to distract us from where our real enemies were".

[18] In 2004, Graham published Intelligence Matters: The CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia and the Failure of America's War on Terror.

[5] Graham had a well-known habit of meticulously logging his daily activities (some as mundane as when he ate a tuna sandwich or rewound a tape of Ace Ventura) on color-coded notebooks, which Salon.com suggested in 2003 may have harmed his standing as a possible vice presidential candidate.

Later, he would credit his undergraduate assistants at Harvard, as well as professors Archon Fung, David King, and Robert D. Putnam, as having helped him understand and conceive of the ideas that would become the book.

[27] The Bob Graham Center for Public Service is housed within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida.

It provides students with opportunities to train for future leadership positions, and allows them to engage with policy makers and scholars in the university community.

On February 9, 2008, The James and Alexis Pugh Hall, funded by longtime friends of the Graham family, was dedicated in the historic area of campus.

Pugh Hall serves as the Center's home as well as the university's oral history and African and Asian languages programs.

[28] In 2009, Graham published America, The Owner's Manual: Making Government Work for You, a book about inspiring and teaching citizens to effectively participate in democracy.