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Person

Trey Grayson

Born:

April 18, 1972
Residence:

Boone County, Kentucky
Occupation:

Lawyer and Politician
Party:

Republican

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Charles Merwin “Trey” Grayson is a lawyer associated with left-of-center election administration groups and former Republican politician who previously served as Secretary of State of Kentucky. He is managing director of CivicPoint, the government relations arm of the law firm Frost Brown Todd. 1

Though Grayson was a Republican during his time in public office, Grayson has since become involved with several left-of-center organizations which focus on electoral issues, including Democracy Works and Issue One. 2 3

Career

Grayson graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1994 before receiving his law degree and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Kentucky in 1998. 4 After graduating from law school, Grayson practiced law in Kentucky, specializing in estate planning and corporate law until 2003. 5

In 2004, Grayson began his career in politics, serving as Kentucky Secretary of State for 2 terms from 2004 until 2011. 6 In 2010, Grayson ran in the Republican primary election for the United States Senate in Kentucky, losing to now-U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). 7

After resigning from his position as Kentucky Secretary of State in January 2011, Grayson accepted a position as director of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics (IOP). In 2013, while Grayson was still working with the IOP, then-President Barack Obama appointed him to a 10-member Commission on Election Administration in order to develop solutions to election inefficiency. 8

In June 2014, Grayson resigned from the IOP to return to Kentucky. 9 From 2014 to 2017, Grayson worked as president and CEO of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. 10

In 2017, he joined the law firm Frost Brown Todd. Grayson has since become managing director of the firm’s government relations affiliate, CivicPoint. 11 Grayson is responsible for managing CivicPoint’s lobbyists and government relations specialists across seven states and Washington, D.C. 12

Political Affiliations

Grayson is very active in civic and charitable organizations at the local, state, and national levels. Since 1999, Grayson has sat on the board of the Kentucky Governor’s Scholar Program, acting as vice chair from 2015 to 2018 and chairing the program since 2018. 13

Grayson was a founding board member of Democracy Works, a left-leaning organization that seeks to use technology in order to increase voter participation to 80% of the eligible population by 2024. 14 From 2011 until 2019 Grayson worked as a board member before becoming a member of the Program and Product Committee on which he sits as of 2021. 15 Democracy Works has been funded by prominent left-of-center private foundations, such as the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Democracy Fund, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. 16

Grayson is also a founding board member of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a position that he continues to hold as of June 2021. 17 The Center also works to increase voter participation and advocates for left-of-center electoral policy. 18

In 2021, Grayson joined the advisory committee for Issue One. 19 Issue One is a left-of-center nonprofit organization affiliated with the Democracy Alliance which advocates for legal restrictions on election-related speech and activity. 20 In 2021, Issue One advocated for the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol riots of January 6, 2021 and published a report claiming that former President Donald Trump’s post-election tweets were designed to undermine the 2020 election. 21

Democracy Works and Issue One are both members of the Bridge Alliance. 22 Bridge Alliance is a coalition of nearly 100 organizations that supports left-of-center electoral policies. 23

Grayson has also been involved in several additional organizations, many of which focus on election integrity. These include the National Council on Election Integrity; the National Task Force on Election Crises; and the Secure Elections Project, which Grayson has chaired since 2019.. 24

References

  1. LinkedIn. Trey Grayson. Accessed June 19, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/treygrayson/
  2. CivicPoint. Our Team. Trey Grayson. Accessed June 19, 2021. https://www.civic-point.com/trey-grayson
  3. CivicPoint. Our Team. Trey Grayson. Accessed June 19, 2021. https://www.civic-point.com/trey-grayson
  4. Frost Brown Todd LLC Attorneys website. People – Trey Grayson. Accessed June 23, 2021. https://frostbrowntodd.com/people/trey-grayson/
  5. Votesmart – Trey Grayson – Biography. Accessed June 23, 2021. https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/biography/35168/trey-grayson-iii
  6. LinkedIn. Trey Grayson. Accessed June 19, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/treygrayson/
  7. Ballotpedia. Trey Grayson. Accessed June 24, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Trey_Grayson
  8. ”Obama appoints former Ky official to commission” Cincinnati Business Courier. Published May 22, 2013. Accessed June 24, 2021. https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2013/05/22/obama-appoints-former-ky-official-to.html
  9. “IOP Director Trey Grayson Announces Resignation” The Harvard Crimson. Published April, 2014. Accessed June 23, 2021. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/4/8/IOP-director-to-resign/
  10. Civic Point – Our Team – Trey Grayson. Accessed June 23, 2021. https://www.civic-point.com/trey-grayson
  11. LinkedIn. Trey Grayson. Accessed June 19, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/treygrayson/
  12. “Ex-Ky Secretary of State takes top CivicPoint position” The Lane Report – Kentucky’s Business News Sourse since 1985. Accessed June 24, 2021. https://www.lanereport.com/121860/2020/02/civicpoint/
  13. Frost Brown Todd Attorneys. People. Trey Grayson – Civic Activities. Accessed June 24, 2021. https://frostbrowntodd.com/people/trey-grayson/
  14. CivicPoint. Our Team. Trey Grayson. Accessed June 19, 2021. https://www.civic-point.com/trey-grayson
  15. Frost Brown Todd Attorneys. People. Trey Grayson – Civic Activities. Accessed June 24, 2021. https://frostbrowntodd.com/people/trey-grayson/
  16. “The Nonprofit Network Behind “Vote by Mail”” Capital Research Center. Accessed June 20, 2021. https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-nonprofit-network-behind-vote-by-mail/
  17. ProPublica NonProfit Explorer. Name Search – Trey Grayson. Accessed June 24,2021. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/name_search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=trey+grayson
  18. GuideStar profile. Center for Election Innovation & Research. Accessed June 24, 2021. https://www.guidestar.org/profile/81-3815137
  19. CivicPoint. Our Team. Trey Grayson. Accessed June 19, 2021. https://www.civic-point.com/trey-grayson
  20. Issue One website. About Us. Accessed June 24, 2021. https://www.issueone.org/about/
  21. Issue One website. About Us – Our Impact. Accessed June 24, 2021. https://www.issueone.org/about/our-impact/
  22. Bridge Alliance – All Members. Accessed June 20, 2021. https://www.bridgealliance.us/all_members
  23. Democracy Works. Influence Watch. Accessed June 20, 2021. https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/democracy-works/
  24. Frost Brown Todd LLC Attorneys website. People – Trey Greyson – Civic Activities. Accessed June 24, 2021. https://frostbrowntodd.com/people/trey-grayson/?fbclid=IwAR2h1mIOKm3PoEErulPwgJA0m6YGfJMYcUKIrUFqhC7l6BphBnGl9Y0EC7M
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