Former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson is resigning from his position as director of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.
Grayson said he hopes to come back to the commonwealth to explore “a couple opportunities” but doesn’t have plans to enter the 2015 race for governor.
“Until my kids get older, I don’t have any interest in running for office in the near term,” Grayson said. “I’m just looking for a good opportunity, and maybe someday I’ll return to elective politics, but I don’t see that in the near term.”
Grayson, a Republican, said even if he wanted to run for office in the short term, his three year stay in Massachusetts would present residency challenges in Kentucky.
University of Kentucky Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues director Al Cross says Grayson would be an attractive candidate in Kentucky.
“I think he probably realizes that he needs to get back to the state and re-establish himself as a Kentuckian after having been gone for almost four years,” Cross said.
Grayson resigned as Secretary of State in early 2011, less than a year after losing the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate to Rand Paul.
Earlier this year, Grayson was passed over for the presidency of Lexington's Transylvania University after having been named one of three finalists. Grayson was at one time rumored to be a candidate for the same post at Murray State University. He said he appreciated MSU's win over Yale last week in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament championship.
"I just want to thank everyone at Murray State for beating Yale in that postseason basketball tournament, the CIT," Grayson said. "As a Harvard guy, we really appreciated that."
Grayson’s resignation from Harvard is effective June 30.
