Jim Graham

Graham died June 11, 2017, at George Washington University Hospital from complications related to an infection and complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Graham was first elected in 1998 and won reelection in 2002, 2006, and 2010 but was defeated in his bid for a fifth term in the Democratic primary election on April 1, 2014, by a margin of 41 percent to 59 percent for challenger Brianne Nadeau.

On September 24, 2009, Graham's Chief of Staff, Ted Loza, was arrested by the FBI and charged with two counts of accepting bribes. The indictment alleges that Loza accepted two payments and promised to promote the legislation and policies concerning D.C. taxi cabs that the alleged briber wanted. Graham was the chairman of the committee that oversees taxi cab regulation, but voluntarily gave up oversight of cabs after Loza's arrest.

In early 2005, Graham was accused (allegedly by Washington businessman Sinclair Skinner) of driving historically African-American businesses from the neighborhoods of Columbia Heights, Shaw, and the U Street corridor. The Washington City Paper reported on the accusation:

Graham served as chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's board of directors twice—once in 2003 and again in 2009.

In 1999 and 2007, Graham donated a large collection of his personal and professional papers to the George Washington University. The collection is under the care of GWU's Special Collections Research Center, located in the Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library.

In 1984, dismayed by the quality of legal support, Graham himself undertook the legal aid counseling of those with AIDS for 18 months: "I went to dying people to straighten out their legal affairs ... in addition to other duties. It carried me right into the trenches; it created the whole experience. I vividly remember going to the bedsides, the horrible circumstances. ... It was extremely emotional." In an oral history for the Rainbow History Project, Graham commented, "We've had one of the greatest epidemics of all time and this was the history, the history of the community banding together and helping itself. It was a phenomenal story." He says of the time: "It was the most difficult period that I've ever been through, there's no question."

In October 1979, Graham joined Whitman-Walker Clinic's board. He helped the clinic survive its initial funding crises and in April 1981 became president of the board. Within three years, he became the executive director, leading the clinic's response to AIDS for 15 years (1984–1999). Under his leadership the clinic became a leading HIV/AIDS institution, with more than 1,200 volunteers, 270 full-time employees, and satellite operations in Southeast Washington, Maryland and Virginia. When Graham left Whitman-Walker in January 1999, it had become one of the most comprehensive community based medical organizations responding to HIV/AIDS in the country.

James McMillan Nielson Graham (August 26, 1945 – June 11, 2017) was a Scottish-born American politician and a member of the Council of the District of Columbia. He was a Democrat who represented Ward 1 in Washington, D.C. from 1999 until 2015.

Graham was born on August 26, 1945, in Wishaw, Scotland. Graham's parents, neither of whom had high school degrees, settled in Hyattsville, Maryland, after immigrating to the United States from Scotland.