Alison Lundergan Grimes

Early life and education

Grimes was born in Maysville, Kentucky. She is the daughter of Charlotte (née Case) and Jerry Lundergan, a former Kentucky Democratic chairman and state representative. Grimes was the third of five children, all girls. As a child, Grimes knocked on doors on behalf of her father's political campaigns, and later drove voters to the polls on election day. Grimes grew up wanting to be a doctor, but changed majors in college after passing out while watching carpal tunnel surgery.

Grimes went to Lexington Catholic High School in Lexington, Kentucky, and then went on to graduate from Rhodes College in 2001. Grimes majored in political science, with a minor in history. Grimes is a member of the Chi Omega sorority and served as president of her college chapter; she also served as a student trustee and a member of student government. Grimes received her J.D. degree cum laude from the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C. While at American, Grimes participated in public policy research for the National Kidney Foundation.

Career

Prior to running for Secretary of State, Grimes was a practicing attorney in Lexington. She served as an associate at Stoll Keenon Ogden from 2004 to 2011, specializing in intellectual property and complex business litigation. Grimes credits a domestic abuse case she won as helping to inspire her to pursue a political career rather than attempting to become a partner at her firm.

Grimes served as president of the Fayette County Women Lawyers' Association, and was awarded the 2010 Outstanding Young Lawyer Award by the Fayette County Bar Association. She was also a precinct officer for the 75th Legislative District in Kentucky as well as a member of the 2008 Democratic National Committee rules committee.

Grimes has served numerous times as delegate to the Democratic National Convention, supporting Hillary Clinton in 2008, Barack Obama in 2012, and Hillary Clinton in 2016. Grimes addressed the 2016 Democratic National Convention on the evening of the official roll call vote as a close personal friend of the party's nominee Hillary Clinton. She was named one of the "new stars of the Democratic Party" after her address.

Grimes has led the Democratic ticket in each of her three statewide races.

Secretary of State

In 2010, Grimes announced her candidacy for the office of Secretary of State of Kentucky, left open by term limited incumbent Republican Trey Grayson.

When Grayson resigned to accept a position at the Harvard Institute of Politics, Governor Steve Beshear appointed Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker over Grimes to fill the rest of Grayson's term in office. Despite this, Grimes stayed in the race and defeated Walker by a double digit margin in the May primary.

Grimes faced Republican businessman and former Senate candidate Bill Johnson in the general election. A main aspect of the campaign was Grimes's opposition to Johnson's proposal to require photo IDs in order to vote. Grimes argued this would take away voting rights from the homeless among others. She also became well known through commercials that showed her elderly grandmothers. Grimes defeated Johnson with over 60% of the vote. She received a higher percentage of the vote than any other Kentucky statewide Democratic candidate during the 2011 elections.

Her term as Secretary of State began on January 2, 2012.

As Secretary of State, Grimes has helped modernize and streamline government services. Her efforts included a one-stop business portal. More than 150,000 new businesses were launched during her tenure.

Grimes has been an advocate for improving access to the ballot box. She launched GoVoteKY.com, online voter registration in Kentucky, and fought for and implemented new laws that protect the voting rights of victims of domestic violence and absentee voters. A statewide voter registration drive she led during the 2016 presidential election resulted in more than 100,000 new voters. Grimes continues to push for introducing in-person early voting in Kentucky elections. Kentucky is among a handful of states which do not allow voters to cast ballots in-person without an excuse before Election Day.

In 2012, she visited the Middle East to observe the voting process of overseas military personnel. This experience led her to become an advocate of an improved voting process for the U.S. military. Grimes's recommendations received bipartisan support in the Kentucky General Assembly and were signed into law in April 2013. The Kentucky Military Heroes Voting Initiative law allows military members and other covered voters to register to vote and update their registration online, ensures that military voters have sufficient time to vote in special elections, and extends existing protections to state and local elections and National Guard members.

Grimes is an advocate for the restoration of voting rights for Kentucky's non-violent felons who have served their sentences. Kentucky remains one of three states which does not automatically restore voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences.

Grimes has been a proponent of legislation and initiatives to aid individuals with disabilities, including working with Kentucky agencies to help educate disabled voters about their rights at the ballot box and advocating for a law that improves communication between law enforcement and the more than 700,000 Kentuckians who are deaf or hard of hearing.

2014 U.S. Senate campaign

In a July 1, 2013, press conference, Grimes announced her intentions to run for the United States Senate seat held by Mitch McConnell. Grimes officially launched the campaign with a kick-off rally on July 30, 2013, and officially filed her paperwork to be on the Kentucky ballot in January 2014.

On May 20, 2014, she won the Democratic primary with 77% of the vote. She faced Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the general election on November 4, 2014 and lost despite that the race was initially considered to be competitive by both the Cook Political Report and the Rothenberg Political Report, which considered the race only to lean Republican."

In April 2014, Grimes attended a Chicago meeting of the Democracy Alliance, a group of liberal donors who pool their resources in support of progressive causes, where she was a featured speaker at the event. Hollywood executives Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Katzenberg have hosted fundraising events for Grimes in New York City and Beverly Hills. Her father's involvement in the campaign has been noted as a factor in the race because of the political and fundraising connections he brings.

Grimes and McConnell disagreed over debate proposals; McConnell preferred a series of Lincoln-Douglas style debates with only candidates asking questions and no audience, while Grimes said she wants members of the audience to ask questions. They ultimately had a single debate, aired October 13 on KET; host Bill Goodwin posed the questions and also relayed questions from viewers.

On October 26, Grimes received endorsements from the editorial boards of The Courier-Journal and The Lexington Herald-Leader.

On November 4, McConnell defeated Grimes, 56.2% to 40.7%, to win re-election.

2015 reelection campaign

After her defeat in the 2014 elections for the US Senate, Grimes was speculated as a candidate for re-election to office of Secretary of State of Kentucky, for Governor of Kentucky and for Attorney General of Kentucky, but in January 2015 she announced her plans to run for re-election as Secretary of State. On November 3, 2015, Grimes won re-election with 51% of the vote.

Political positions

Grimes stated she would vote to delay the employer mandate for small businesses in the Affordable Care Act, but supports the act's goals of increasing coverage. She has criticized Mitch McConnell's votes to defund the act on the grounds that doing so would "destroy Kynect," Kentucky's state-based insurance exchange.

In November 2013, Grimes said that as a member of the National Rifle Association, her "strong support for the Second Amendment is unquestioned" and added that she was "proud of Kentucky's long-held gun ownership, sporting and hunting traditions", inviting McConnell to go shooting with her.

Grimes has said that she is "pro-choice down the line on abortion" and opposes efforts to prohibit abortion after 20 weeks. She explained "I come from a family of five women. I would never pretend to tell one of my sisters what to do with their body and I don't want the federal government doing that either.… When it comes to choice, I believe, should a woman have to make that decision, it's between herself, her doctor, and her God."

Grimes supports Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

Grimes opposes further EPA rules on powerplant emissions, arguing that they will result in job losses in Kentucky's coal industry.

Grimes supports reducing taxes for businesses that provide child care to their employees, has called for pay equity for female employees and expressed her desire to increase the federal minimum wage.

Personal life

Married since September 2, 2006, Grimes lives with her husband, Andrew, in downtown Lexington.