Gray Tollison | |
Office: | President pro tempore of the Mississippi Senate |
Term Start: | January 11, 2019 |
Term End: | January 7, 2020 |
Predecessor: | Terry C. Burton |
Successor: | Dean Kirby |
State Senate1: | Mississippi |
District1: | 9th |
Term Start1: | January 2, 1996 |
Term End1: | January 7, 2020 |
Predecessor1: | Kay B. Cobb |
Successor1: | Nicole Boyd |
Birth Name: | Grady Franklin Tollison |
Birth Date: | 8 September 1964 |
Birth Place: | Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
Party: | Democratic (Before 2011) Republican (2011–present) |
Education: | Rhodes College (BA) University of Mississippi, Oxford (JD) |
Grady Franklin "Gray" Tollison (born September 8, 1964) is a Republican member of the Mississippi Senate, representing District 9 since 1996. In January 2012, Tollison was appointed Chairman of the Senate Education Committee by Lt. Governor Tate Reeves. From 2004 until 2012, he served as Chairman of the Judiciary, Division “B” Committee under the leadership of Lt. Governor Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck. He also serves as a member of the Rules, Finance, Public Health and Welfare, Universities and Colleges, and Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Committees.
Tollison switched to the Republican Party on November 11, 2011, two days after winning his fifth election as a Democrat in the Mississippi Senate.[1] This occurred only after Mississippi Republicans seized the control of House of Representatives & State Senate for the first time since the 1800s.[2]
Tollison is a graduate of Oxford High School, Rhodes College and the University of Mississippi School of Law.