Ashley Judd Compares Running Against Mitch McConnell With Rape [Report]
Rape survivor Ashely Judd allegedly made a comparison between her possible US Senate campaign against incumbent Mitch McConnell and being raped.
Judd is strongly considering running against McConnell, in 2014, even though some of her fellow Democrats apparently feel she will drag down candidates for other statewide and local offices in Kentucky.
The actress reportedly made the rape allusion to campaigning against McConnell at a private dinner with rich potential campaign contributors last month in Louisville: “Asked if she was tough enough to take on McConnell and the GOP national attack machine, Judd reportedly answered, ‘I have been raped twice, so I think I can handle Mitch McConnell.’ ”
A publicist for Ashely Judd has declined to confirm or deny the story.
While both political parties will toss vast amounts of money into the campaign for hard-hitting advertising (some of which has already started) and whatnot, the rape comment seems over the top in that Mitch McConnell, 70, himself is a rather polite, courtly gentlemen regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with his political views.
McConnell, the longest serving US Senator in Kentucky history (first elected in 1984), has been the Minority Leader for the Republicans since 2007. Judd already has McConnell beat in the charisma department hands down, but whether that will or could translate into votes in a conservative state that went overwhelmingly for Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election remains to be seen.
Candidates on both sides of the aisle have gotten into trouble recently with making highly insensitive comments about rape.
Separately, according to another published account, during Judd’s March 1 presentation at George Washington University, she indicated that she had been raped three times.
If Ashley Judd — who currently lives in the Nashville, Tennessee, area — decides to run for US Senate from Kentucky, she needs to hire a moving van. Under Kentucky law, she needs to establish residency in that state by November (i.e., at least one year before the election takes place).
