State Senator Dan Webster is the latest person to put his hat in the ring to run against Alan Grayson. Webster was elected to the State House in 1980, where he served for 18 years, before running for the State Senate, where he served another 10 years.

During his time in office he was elected by his colleagues to be the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority leader. He retired as the longest serving member of the Florida Legislature.

In 2004, he started a campaign to run for the US Senate but bowed out, before reaching enough signatures to qualify.

Immediately after announcing his plans to run in District 8, Grayson’s office responded by releasing the following statement:

“Dan Webster is another career politician born out of the Tallahassee Republican machine, which has been, and continues to be, the cradle of corruption in this state. Congressman Grayson is the epitome of ‘People Power.’ He has broad support from thousands of donors in Central Florida, who each contribute small amounts of clean money to his campaign, with no strings attached.”