January 20, 2013

Yup, Ashley Judd Sounds Like She’s Running for Something

Actress Ashley Judd and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.)@clairemc/Twitter

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The surest sign yet that Ashley Judd might actually run for Senate? She’s starting to talk like she might actually run for Senate. On Saturday, the actress and activist told guests at the Bluegrass Ball in Washington, DC that she was “certainly taking a close look” at challenging Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2014. She didn’t, however, answer a Politico reporter’s question about gun control legislation—a subject that other red-state Democrats like West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Montana Sen. Max Baucus have also avoided. So on Sunday, I put the question to her again at a brunch reception for EMILY’s List, the organization dedicated to support pro-choice female Democratic candidates.

Judd didn’t take the bait: “I really enjoyed—I was very proud of the Vice President’s role on that,” she said. “I liked the consultation and the full voice of people across the spectrum of opinions and ideology about it. I thought focusing in particular on video game creators was important. And I hope that there will be buy-in.”

Thus concluded the Mother Jones Ashley Judd interview. Of course, the biggest hint that Judd is seriously considering a run might just be how she exited the brunch EMILY’s List brunch—carpooling with Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.):

2014 should be fun.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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