Ashley Judd ‘Way Too Liberal’ For Kentucky, Rand Paul Says

Ashley Judd’s potential challenge to popular Republican Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has been a much buzzed about bit of political intrigue in recent weeks, but the GOP lawmaker feels that despite Judd’s star power, the actress would be a hard sell in conservative, coal mining Kentucky.

Ashley Judd has been very politically active in recent years, throwing her support behind women’s issues including reproductive rights as well as various humanitarian causes.

And Judd is not the only consideration for Rand Paul — he himself has openly flirted with a game-changing 2016 presidential run, rather early in the season at that. Still, Paul has addressed the issue of a possible Ashley Judd showdown in Kentucky politics, and he thinks that voters in the state won’t warm to Judd.

Paul gave his as-always unvarnished opinion on the possibility of an Ashley Judd campaign to a Kentucky radio station, mocking her for living abroad with the socialists in the UK. Paul quipped:

“I heard she lived in Scotland? … I thought she was running for Parliament. I think she’d fit right in in the English Parliament.”

But it’s not just Ashley Judd’s embrace of European socialism that has Paul skeptical of her Kentucky chances — the senator also feels her overall political makeup would not be amenable to his constituency.

Paul said:

“She’s way damn too liberal for our country, for our state … She hates our biggest industry, which is coal. So I was good luck bringing the ‘I hate coal’ message to Kentucky.”

Reports suggest that the star is considering challenging Paul or perhaps Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in 2014.

Below is the clip in which Rand Paul discusses Ashley Judd, as well as his presidential aspirations in 2016.