William Ryan deGraffenried Jr. (April 2, 1950 – December 7, 2006) served as President Pro Tempore of the

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

State Senate from 1987 to 1994.

Early life and education

DeGraffenried was born in

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal Plain, Gulf Coastal and Piedmont (United States), Piedm ...

. He graduated from the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...

and the

Cumberland School of Law The Cumberland School of Law is an American Bar Association, ABA-accredited law school at Samford University in Homewood, Alabama, United States. It was founded in 1847 at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee and is the 11th oldest law sch ...

Samford University Samford University is a Private university, private Christian university in Homewood, Alabama, United States. It was founded by Baptist Church, Baptists in 1841 as Howard College and located until 1887 in Marion, Alabama. It is governed by an in ...

Career

DeGraffenried represented

Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal Plain, Gulf Coastal and Piedmont (United States), Piedm ...

in the

Alabama State Senate The Alabama State Senate is the upper house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alabama. The body is composed of 35 members representing an equal number of districts across the state, with each district conta ...

from 1978 until 1994 and served as the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, from 1987 until 1994. He was elected to the Senate in a special election when then-State Sen.

Richard Shelby Richard Craig Shelby (born May 6, 1934) is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Alabama from 1987 to 2023. First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 as a Democrat, Shelby switched to the Republican Party i ...

was elected to the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

to fill the vacancy of

Walter Flowers Walter Winkler Flowers, Jr. (April 12, 1933 – April 12, 1984) was an American Democratic politician who represented Alabama's 5th congressional district and Alabama's 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representati ...

. After

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

H. Guy Hunt Harold Guy Hunt (June 17, 1933 – January 30, 2009) was an American politician who served as the 49th governor of Alabama from 1987 to 1993. He was the first Republican to serve as governor of the state since Reconstruction. Early life Hun ...

was removed from office due to criminal conviction, the Lieutenant Governor, Jim Folsom, Jr. became the new governor. DeGraffenried, as the President Pro Tempore of the state Senate, became next in line for the governorship for the remainder of the

quadrennium A unit of time is any particular time interval, used as a standard way of measuring or expressing duration. The base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), and by extension most of the Western world, is the second, defined as a ...

. DeGraffenried ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor in 1994, losing the Democratic primary to future Governor

Don Siegelman Donald Eugene Siegelman ( ; born February 24, 1946) is an American politician who was the 51st governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003. To date, Siegelman is the last Democrat as well as the only Catholic to serve as Governor of Alabama. Siegelma ...

. He then returned to practicing law in Tuscaloosa and later became a contract lobbyist.

Personal life

His father, Ryan DeGraffenried Sr., was also an Alabama politician. He died unexpectedly of undisclosed natural causes in 2006 while attending a conference in

Hoover Hoover may refer to: Music * Hoover (band), an American post-hardcore band * Hooverphonic, a Belgian band originally named Hoover * Hoover (singer), Willis Hoover, a country and western performer active in 1960s and '70s * "Hoover" (song), a 201 ...

, Alabama, aged 56."Former Alabama Sen. Ryan deGraffenried Jr. Dies," WSFA 12 News Montgomery, December 13, 2006
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References

Electoral history

Alabama Senate (16th district), 1982 * Ryan DeGraffenried (D) (inc.) - 20,149 (100.00%) Alabama Senate (21st district), 1983 * Ryan DeGraffenried (D) (inc.) - 7,164 (100.00%) Alabama Senate (21st district), 1986 * Ryan DeGraffenried (D) (inc.) - 23,101 (100.00%) Alabama Senate (21st district), 1990 * Ryan DeGraffenried (D) (inc.) - 24,445 (100.00%)

Lieutenant Governor of Alabama The lieutenant governor of Alabama is the president of the Alabama Senate, elected to serve a four-year term. The office was created in 1868,1868 Const. art. V, § 1 abolished in 1875,1875 Const. art. V, § 1 and recreated in 1901.AL Const. art. ...

(Democratic primary), 1994 *

- 273,621 (38.62%) * Ryan DeGraffenried - 260,571 (36.78%) * George Wallace, Jr. - 174,302 (24.60%) Lieutenant Governor of Alabama (Democratic primary runoff), 1994 *

- 297,937 (57.32%) * Ryan DeGraffenried - 221,877 (42.68%) Source
OurCampaigns.com DeGraffenried page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Degraffenried, Ryan 1950 births 2006 deaths Democratic Party Alabama state senators Politicians from Tuscaloosa, Alabama Place of birth missing Ryan 20th-century members of the Alabama Legislature