We define an analogue of the Casimir element for a graded affine Hecke algebra $$ \mathbb{H} $$ , and then introduce an approximate square-root called the Dirac element. Using it, we define the Dirac cohomology$H$^{$D$}($X$) of an $$ \mathbb{H} $$ -module$X$, and show that$H$^{$D$}($X$) carries a representation of a canonical double cover of the Weyl group $$ \widetilde{W} $$ . Our main result shows that the $$ \widetilde{W} $$ -structure on the Dirac cohomology of an irreducible $$ \mathbb{H} $$ -module$X$determines the central character of$X$in a precise way. This can be interpreted as$p$-adic analogue of a conjecture of Vogan for Harish-Chandra modules. We also apply our results to the study of unitary representations of $$ \mathbb{H} $$ .