Trey Grayson

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Trey Grayson (born April 18, 1972 in Kenton County, Kentucky) is the Secretary of State for the state of Kentucky. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Grayson was elected to office in November of 2003 in his first run for political office, was the youngest Secretary of State in the country for the first three years of his term. Since his election, Grayson has modernized the Office of the Secretary of State by bringing more services online, enhanced Kentucky’s election laws through several legislative packages, and revived the civic mission of schools in Kentucky by leading the effort to restore civics education in the classroom.

Grayson has been recognized as one of the top young leaders in the United States. In 2005, he was selected for the inaugural class of the Aspen-Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership which recognizes the nation’s "emerging leaders”. In 2004, The Council of State Governments selected him to participate in the prestigious Toll Fellowship Program, and United Leaders recognized him as a “Rising Star” in the Republican Party.

Grayson has held and is currently serving in a variety of leadership capacities, most notably as chairman of the Republican Association of Secretaries of State and as past chairman of the National Association of Secretaries of State’s (NASS) Elections committee. A former vice-chairman of NASS’s committee on voter participation, Grayson also serves on NASS’s standing committee on business services and as the current co-chair for the subcommittee on presidential primaries.

In 2004, Grayson became a member of the Senior Advisory Committee to Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, serving alongside political notables such as Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Senator Edward Kennedy. Grayson also serves on a variety of advisory boards to several national, election-related organizations including Just Democracy and HelpingAmericansVote.org.

A product of the Kenton County public school system, Grayson was inducted into the Kentucky Association for Academic Competition Hall of Fame for his achievements in the Governor’s Cup and other academic competitions at Dixie Heights High School. Grayson was a 1989 Governor’s Scholar and later served as President of the Program’s Alumni Association.

Grayson graduated with honors from Harvard College (A.B., Government, 1994) and from the University of Kentucky (J.D. 1998, M.B.A., 1998) where he was one of the first Kentucky MBA scholars and one of the first two Bert Combs Scholars, the College of Law’s top scholarship. Prior to his election, he was an attorney with Greenebaum Doll & McDonald and Keating, Muething & Klekamp, where he focused on estate planning and corporate law.

Grayson has served on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations, including the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program, the Commonwealth Fund for KET, the Kentucky Symphony, the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education, and the ConnectKentucky steering committee. Most recently he was named to the Kentucky Workforce Investment Board. He is a 2002 graduate of Leadership Kentucky and a 2000 graduate of Leadership Northern Kentucky. He is also a founding member of Legacy, a young professional organization in Northern Kentucky.

In Kentucky, some of his notable honors include his selection as one of forty-four “Kentucky Leaders for the New Century” by the Kentucky Press Association and the Shakertown Roundtable, and as a 2005 Outstanding Young Kentuckian by the Kentucky Jaycees.

Grayson is a fifth generation Kentuckian and lifelong resident of Northern Kentucky. With his election, Grayson became the first Northern Kentuckian to be elected to an existing statewide constitutional office since 1919.

Grayson is married to the former Nancy Humphrey of Lexington. Mrs. Grayson currently serves a number of statewide and community organizations including the Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission, the Northern Kentucky Montessori Center, and the Family Nurturing Center, an organization dedicated to ending the cycle of child abuse.

The Graysons currently reside in Boone County with their two daughters, Alex and Kate.