Grayson and Minning's wedding photo. | Courtesy of the Alan Grayson for Senate campaign Alan Grayson marries candidate who wants to replace him Congressman had formerly protested report on ties to Dena Minning

One of Dena Minning’s biggest assets in her congressional bid was her boyfriend: incumbent Alan Grayson, who’s leaving the U.S. House to run for U.S. Senate.

Now, after Grayson has helped raise her profile and run for his U.S. House seat, he married her over the Memorial Day Weekend and gave her his last name, according to her Monday social-media posts and The Orlando Political Observer.


Dena Minning promptly became Dena Grayson on Twitter and Facebook. The largely unknown outsider in the Orlando-area district now has a potent tool in running under the name of the incumbent in a crowded Democratic primary.

“My handsome, brilliant, and amazing husband, Alan Grayson!!.” she said Monday on her page, which linked to his Senate account.

The Senate candidate’s page made no similar announcement.

The Grayson wedding adds more drama to Florida's 9th Congressional District race, in which Grayson’s former aide and political hand, Susannah Randolph, had been laying the groundwork for the seat. But then she learned last year that her boss’s girlfriend wanted to run and that he would back her.

“I’m speechless,” Randolph, who hadn’t heard the word of the representative’s intentions at the time, told POLITICO May 5, 2015.

At the time, Grayson hadn’t officially announced for U.S. Senate and was starting to get into an increasing number of scraps with fellow Democrats and reporters.

Grayson was also involved in a messy bigamy case, in which he prevailed, and soon faced ethics questions over a hedge fund he ran.

As pressure mounted on the congressman, he phoned Randolph in February, told her about his upcoming marriage and accused her of supporting his Democratic rival, U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, sources with whom Randolph had discussed the call told POLITICO Florida in the days after.

Neither Grayson, Minning nor Randolph could be reached late Monday night.

By then, a Facebook search of the congressional candidate listed her as “Dena Grayson (Minning)."

The congressional candidate’s Twitter handle became “@DenaForCongress” and described her as “Dr. Dena Grayson.”

Grayson is a medical doctor and self-described “biotechnology entrepreneur” and was also a federal lobbyist. Her official campaign account on the Federal Elections Commission website still lists her under her maiden name. Florida’s elections website also refers to the candidate as Minning.

She faces multiple Democrats in the Aug. 30 primary, with Randolph and state Sen. Darren Soto as the strongest opponents.

When POLITICO last year first reported about her interest in the seat and her romantic ties to the congressman, the two refused comment. One critic bristled at POLITICO’s article for describing the candidate as Rep. Grayson’s girlfriend.

The article also listed her degrees.“She has an MD and PhD and is seeking an election run but is still just described as Grayson's girlfriend,” commentator Chelsea Rodriguez, writing from the account @chelsrodrigo, tweeted.

The tweet was subsequently “liked” on Twitter by Dena Grayson. At the time, she only went by the name of Dena Minning.