He served the state of Minnesota as both a member of the United States House of Representatives and a Senator as a member of the Republican party. He was born in Princeton, Minnesota. He attended Brown Institute, 1966-1968, Anoka Ramsey Junior College, 1970-1972, and Carroll College, 1974-1975. He worked as a television news anchor and producer in Helena, Montana, Wausau, Wisconsin, Rockford, Illinois, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was the president of a construction and residential development company in Minneapolis, where he ran into financial difficulties over unpaid taxes on his home and a foreclosure threat. He served in the House from January 3, 1993 to January 3, 1995. He ran for David Durenberger's open U.S. Senate seat in 1994 and was elected. He lost his re-election bid in 2000 to Mark Dayton. He was dogged by rumors of marital problems and his son Morgan's multiple brushes with the law, which eventually landed Morgan in prison. Since leaving the Senate, Grams has worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. and purchased three radio stations in Little Falls, Minnesota.

While Grams had considered entering the 2002 Senate race briefly, and later the 2006 race to recapture the seat he lost to Dayton, he found little support for a prospective candidacy in either race. On April 24, 2005 that he would not run in 2006, leaving Rep. Mark Kennedy the Republican Party's presumptive nominee.

He has now declared his candidacy versus James Oberstar in the 8th CD, a district that is overwhelmingly Democratic.