Americans for Prosperity-Mississippi (AFP-MS), Mississippi’s leading grassroots advocacy organization, on Monday announced Trey Dellinger as its new State Director. Trey will succeed outgoing State Director Russ Latino, who has accepted a Vice President position with AFP, overseeing economic policy initiatives nationally.
“I am incredibly honored by this opportunity,” said Dellinger. “At Americans for Prosperity, we want to remove barriers so that every Mississippian can have a clear path to run hard after their dreams.”
“America was the first country in the world founded on a proposition: that ordinary people should have the freedom to make the most of their innate talents. Our staff and volunteers are dedicated to making that proposition a reality for every Mississippian.”
“Trey couples a deep commitment to creating an environment in which people of all backgrounds can thrive and the unique talents to make that commitment a reality,” said Latino. “We are excited to see how he builds on past success to take the organization to the next level in Mississippi.”
Dellinger said with his new role he plans to utilize every tool he can to create an environment full of opportunity.
“We want to give every Mississippian a real opportunity to achieve their dreams. Unfortunately in Mississippi we give in too often to low expectations. There is an unfortunate tendency to get comfortable with what we’ve known even though there is a much better future out there for us if we’re willing to think big,” said Dellinger. “Every day I am going to look for policies that open doors for folks like that. This will require us to be bold with our policy solutions.”
Prior to joining Americans for Prosperity, Trey spent more than 20 years in private law practice, the last 17 of which were with the Wells Marble firm where he defended businesses and individuals from civil lawsuits. Trey was consistently ranked a top lawyer amongst his peers and by professional rating groups. In 2015, Trey was selected by the Mississippi Business Journal as one of Mississippi’s Top 40 attorneys for Leadership in Law.
Before entering the practice of law, Trey earned his undergraduate degree in Physics magna cum laudefrom the University of Mississippi in 1992 and the J.D. cum laude from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1996, where he received the Robert W. Upchurch Award for Excellence in Federal Jurisdiction.
Trey has long been active in the state and community. He served as Government Relations Chairman for the Madison County Business League and Foundation, and on the boards of the Mississippi Council of Economic Education, and the Ridgeland Chamber of Commerce. Trey also served on the Madison County Republican Executive Committee prior to joining AFP.
While AFP has made strides on issues in the past, Dellinger said the top two things he plans to focus on when communicating with policy makers are education and technology.
“I am passionate about education solutions that empower parents and students and that are not locked into stale ways of thinking about how knowledge gets delivered. We should not limit our thinking to just the traditional education model. We want to look for policies that empower parents and students and other policies that give educators within the traditional public school system more freedom to innovate,” said Dellinger. “Technology has incredible power to be a gamechanger in the way people learn, both traditional students and non-traditional adult students. The other broad policy area we will focus on is economic freedom.”
He said under that umbrella they plan to work to advance policies keep government narrow and focused.
Sarah Ulmer
