Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel (pronounced /ɡrəˈvɛl/; born May 13, 1930) is a former Democratic United States Senator from Alaska, who served two terms from 1969 to 1981, and a former candidate in the 2008 presidential election.

Born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts to French-Canadian immigrant parents, Gravel served in the United States Army in West Germany and graduated from Columbia University. He moved to Alaska in the late 1950s, becoming a real estate developer and entering politics. He served in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1963 to 1966 and became its Speaker of the House. Gravel was elected to the United States Senate in 1968.

As Senator, Gravel became nationally known for his forceful but unsuccessful attempts to end the draft during the Vietnam War and for having put the Pentagon Papers into the public record in 1971 despite risk to himself. He conducted an unusual campaign for the Democratic nomination for Vice President of the United States in 1972, and then played a crucial role in getting Congressional approval for the Trans-Alaska pipeline in 1973. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1974, but gradually alienated most of his Alaskan constituencies and his bid for a third term was defeated in a Democratic primary election in 1980.

Gravel returned to business ventures and went through difficult times, suffering corporate and personal bankruptcies amid poor health. He is a passionate advocate of direct democracy and the National Initiative. In 2006, Gravel began a run for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States to promote those ideas. His campaign gained an Internet following and national attention due to forceful, humorous and politically unorthodox debate appearances during 2007, but showed very little support in national polls or in 2008 caucuses and primaries. In March 2008, he announced he was switching to the Libertarian Party to compete for its presidential nomination and the inclusion of the National Initiative into the Libertarian Platform. At the May 2008 Libertarian National Convention he failed on both counts and announced his political electoral career had ended.

Gravel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, one of five children to French-Canadian immigrant parents Marie Bourassa (b. 1901 in Saint-Ours, Quebec) and Alphonse Gravel (b. 1896 in Sorel, Quebec), a painter and general contractor. His parents were part of the Quebec diaspora, and he was raised in a working class neighborhood during the Great Depression, speaking only French until he was seven years old. Calling him "Mike" from an early age, his father valued work above all else, while his mother stressed to him the importance of education.

Gravel was educated in parochial schools as a Roman Catholic. There he struggled – due to what he later said was undiagnosed dyslexia – and was left back in third grade. He completed elementary school in 1945 and his class voted him "most charming personality". A summer job as a soda jerk led to Gravel handing out campaign fliers for local candidates on behalf of his boss; Gravel was immediately impressed with "the awesomeness of political office."

Gravel then boarded at Assumption Preparatory School in Worcester, Massachusetts. There he had mediocre performance at first. Then an English teacher, the Assumptionist Edgar Bourque, gave him personnel attention, improving Gravel's language skills and instructing him in public speaking. Gravel's grades improved measurably in his final year, and he graduated in 1949. He has a sister, Marguerite, who became a Holy Cross nun, but Gravel himself struggled with Catholicism.

Gravel studied for one year at Assumption College in Worcester, then transferred for his sophomore year to American International College in Springfield. Journalist I. F. Stone and philosopher Bertrand Russell strongly influenced Gravel in their willingness to challenge assumptions and oppose social convention and political authority.

Around May 1951, Gravel saw that he was about to be drafted, and instead enlisted in the United States Army for a three-year stint so that he could get into the counterintelligence corps. After basic training and counterintelligence school at Fort Holabird in Maryland and in South Carolina, he went to Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning in Georgia. While he expected to be sent off to the Korean War when he graduated as a second lieutenant in early 1952, he instead was assigned to Stuttgart, West Germany, as a Special Adjutant in the Army's Communications Intelligence Service. There he had an adventurous time moving around the country, conducting surveillance operations on civilians, and paying off spies. After about a year he transferred to Orléans, France, where his French language abilities (if not his Quebec-American accent) allowed him to infiltrate French communist rallies. He worked as a Special Agent in the Counter Intelligence Corps until 1954, eventually becoming a First Lieutenant.

Following his discharge, Gravel attended Columbia University's School of General Studies in New York City, where he studied economics and received a B.S. in 1956. He had come to New York "flat broke", and supported himself by working as a bar boy in a hotel, driving a taxicab, and working in the investment bond department at Bankers Trust. During this time he left the Catholic faith.