Alison Lundergan Grimes

In November 2017, Grimes announced the formation of a task force for legalizing the medical use of cannabis in Kentucky. In January 2018, House Bill 166 was introduced which incorporated the recommendations of the task force. In March 2018, Grimes coauthored an op-ed with Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer calling for passage of the bill. The bill stalled, however, which Grimes blamed on Republican leadership "holding the bill hostage".

On March 14, 2016, Grimes launched the online voter registration system GoVoteKY.com. 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.

She was re-elected for a second term as Secretary of State of Kentucky on November 3, 2015, defeating Republican Stephen Knipper. Term limited in 2019, she was succeeded by Republican Michael Adams.

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.

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.

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.

In November 2013, Grimes claimed 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 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 said her goals when elected included "updating business and election laws, increasing voting access for veterans and protecting the identity of domestic-violence victims in registration records." She 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.

In 2012, Grimes 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 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.

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

Grimes has served numerous times as delegate to the Democratic National Convention, supporting candidate Hillary Clinton in 2008, Barack Obama in 2012, and party nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. She 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.

Married since September 2, 2006, she and her husband, Andrew Grimes, live in downtown Lexington. On July 23, 2018, Grimes announced her pregnancy on Twitter and that she and her husband were expecting their first child, a boy, in December. She gave birth to a son, Crawford “Ford” Case Grimes, on December 26, 2018. This made Grimes the second statewide officeholder to give birth while in office; the first being Kentucky State Treasurer Allison Ball in July 2018.

Prior to running for Secretary of State, Grimes was a practicing attorney in Lexington. She served as an associate at Stoll Keenon Ogden from 2004–11, specializing in intellectual property and complex business litigation.

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 Juris Doctor 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.

Alison Case Lundergan Grimes (born November 23, 1978) is an American lawyer and Democratic politician who was the Secretary of State of Kentucky from 2012 until 2020. Grimes was elected in 2011 after defeating incumbent Elaine Walker in the Democratic primary and Republican candidate Bill Johnson in the general election. She was the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate in 2014, unsuccessfully challenging Republican incumbent and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.