Interview: Win Graham runs for County Judge
Win Graham, whose great-grandfather sold lots to found and populate the City of Graham at the 1884 World’s Fair in New Orleans, is running for the county judge’s seat that will be vacated by longtime officeholder John Bullock in December.
Mr. Graham is an accountant by education and runs his family’s gas and oil business. He has served on the Graham school board, the Young Central Appraisal District, the Graham Industrial Association and the Graham Hospital Foundation, the Graham Airport board, the foundation for the First United Methodist Church in Graham and the Chamber of Commerce board. He currently is treasurer of Virginia’s House, a family resource center. He has two sons who live in New York and Connecticut, and a daughter who will attend Texas Christian University in the fall. He has been married to his wife Suzy for 25 years.
Mr. Graham ran unopposed in the primary election on the Republican ticket and was set to have no opposition in the Nov. 8 general election until Oak Street Baptist Church pastor Joe Finfrock tossed his hat into the ring in March as a write-in candidate.
The Enterprise visited with Mr. Graham in his office to hear his take on the job of Young County judge.
Q: You mentioned that this was a great time in your life to become county judge. Why is that?
Mr. Graham: My last child has graduated high school and is about to move off to college so with the empty nest, I’m going to have lots of extra time. It’s a great time to take on this challenge. I have been thinking about and planning for this for a long time. In fact, I even talked to Judge Bullock about it four years ago and he told me he wanted another term to finish up some things he was working on.
Q: Tell us a little about your background.
Mr. Graham: I am a fifth-generation Young County resident, graduated from Graham High School, and went to the University of Texas at Austin where I got a business degree in accounting. I moved to Houston and was a CPA and auditor for Coopers & Lybrand, a big six public accounting firm - I did that for many years. Then I went into investment banking and was a commodities trader for many years. My father, unfortunately, became terminally ill and I moved home in 2005. Now I work here at The Allar Company, which is an oil and gas mineral company.
Q: What are the issues that Young County is facing that you want to help overcome?
Mr. Graham: The biggest thing is rural Texas is changing whether we like it or not. Metropolitan cities are getting bigger. More and more state and federal monies are going to these huge metropolitan centers, and rural Texas is being forgotten. Drive anywhere and you can see it. These small communities are struggling, and many are dying, and I feel like the county government needs to be proactive in trying to manage and guide these changes so that our communities can survive. I’m really concerned about the changes to small-town Texas. Health care is a huge challenge. Getting reimbursed in small-town hospitals compared to big city hospitals is not equitable. Mental health in rural Texas is almost nonexistent. Ranchers used to be able to get grass leases on these big ranches and run cattle. Now, those ranches are being sold off and being divided up into ranchettes or subdivisions for city folks, which is great for property values, but not for our local ranchers. They are buying property here and they’re hunting and they’re coming in for recreation, but these nonresidents are also demanding county services. So many things are changing in these rural communities, and we need to really think them through and plan for them to create the most advantages that we can for Young County.
Q: What do you see as the ways that we can improve Young County?
Mr. Graham: I would love to see our county partner with our cities to recruit and facilitate economic development in Young County. We should constantly be looking to create higher-paying jobs for our citizens. New jobs and industries will also allow us to maintain and possibly improve county services without creating new tax burdens on our residents. Also, I would love to work with the Sheriff ’s department and rural fire departments to help them better serve and protect our county. I believe my decades of business experience and my dedication to volunteering in my community put me in a unique position to be able to serve and help improve Young County.