Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes acknowledges that she might challenge Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for the U.S. Senate in 2014.
But when Grimes was running for office in September 2011, she pledged to serve her full term as secretary of state and not run for higher office, according to video taken at the time. Her term ends in 2016, meaning she would leave office two years earlier if she would beat McConnell.
When asked about her political ambitions during a video interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal in 2011, a reporter also asked Grimes if she would “serve for four years if you win.”
“Yes, I hope to,” Grimes said then. “That’s the term, yes.”
Asked if she wouldn’t run for any other office while serving as secretary of state, Grimes said, “I’m focused on being able to do some good with this office for all Kentuckians.”
While national Democrats have been trying to find someone to challenge McConnell next year, a host of potential candidates — including, most famously, actress Ashley Judd — have opted against a campaign.