Carbon nanostructures are attractive for spin polarized electronics due to low spin orbit coupling which should lead to long spin coherence times. In this talk, I will introduce spin polarized electronics and current applications in magnetic recording and memory. These are based primarily on spin polarized transport in metals and tunnel junctions. More recently, investigation of spin polarized transport has been performed in new materials systems such as carbon nanotubes. I will discuss our research on spin in carbon nanotubes (CNT) and mesoscopic graphite flakes. We observe magnetoresistance in CNT and graphite spin valves, which is a signature of spin polarized transport. We are now working to achieve spin transport in single layer graphene. Finally, I will discuss our efforts to develop molecular beam epitaxy growth of graphene layers on insulating substrates, including the challenges for both solid source and gas source growth. This project is in the early stages, but I will talk about our approach and some preliminary findings.