Trey Grayson

Trey Grayson (born April 18, 1972 in Kenton County, Kentucky) is the Secretary of State of Kentucky. He is a member of the Republican Party. Prior to being elected Secretary of State, Grayson was an attorney in private practice.

After graduating from Dixie Heights High School in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, Grayson went to Harvard University, where he graduated with honors in 1994 with an A.B. in government. He then returned to Kentucky, entering a JD/MBA dual-degree program at the University of Kentucky, where he was one of the first Kentucky MBA scholars and one of the first two Bert T. Combs Scholars, the College of Law’s top scholarship. After earning both degrees in 1998, he was an attorney with Greenebaum Doll & McDonald and later Keating, Muething & Klekamp, where he focused on estate planning and corporate law.

Grayson stamped himself as one of the Kentucky Republicans' future stars in 2007. In an election that saw Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher lose by a 17% margin, Grayson scored a 14-point win in his bid for reelection as Secretary of State. He and incumbent Commissioner of Agriculture Richie Farmer, who won his race by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, became the first Kentucky Republicans to win statewide office in an election won by a Democratic gubernatorial candidate since 1915. [cite news|url=http://kentucky.com/635/story/223514.html |title=What’s next: GOP looks beyond sobering night |first=Ryan |last=Alessi |publisher="Lexington Herald-Leader" |date=2007-11-06 |accessdate=2007-11-06]

Grayson was elected by his national colleagues on July 28, 2008 to serve as president-elect of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and will assume the presidency of the organization during the summer of 2009. Grayson has served on the NASS Executive Board and in various leadership positions since 2004, when he first became a member of NASS including his current position of treasurer. He has served as chair of the elections committee, voter participation committee, and has served two terms as co-chair of the presidential primary sub-committee, where he is a national authority on presidential primary election reform. He will continue to serve in this position during the 2008-2009 officer cycle with his re-appointment by current President Pedro Cortes, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State. When he assumes his post next year, Grayson will be the first secretary from Kentucky to be NASS president in the organization’s 105-year history.

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.treygrayson.com Trey Grayson's website]
* [http://sos.ky.gov Secretary of State Office's website]
** [http://sos.ky.gov/secdesk/biography.htm Official biography]