Recently there has been a lot of media attention focused on actress Ashley Judd involving a potential bid for Senate against the unpopular and potentially vulnerable senate minority leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky. So far no other big names have entered the field and it is possible that Judd might end up our nominee by default. Her supporters praise her for having the courage to run as a liberal in a conservative state and to fight for progressive ideals against the ultimate senate bogeyman.
But make no mistake, Ashley Judd cannot win.
You see, Judd, while being a perfectly fine liberal, is opposed to mountaintop removal and has some not so nice things to say about King Coal. That would be a huge plus if she were running in Vermont, after all mountaintop removal is a terrible thing, but her position makes her dead on arrival in coal heavy Kentucky. Why? Look at any of the recent statewide races below president in Kentucky and what are some of the Democrats' best counties in almost all of them? That's right, the heavily unionized but still conservative coal ones. They vote Democratic at even higher rates than the much more urban and diverse counties holding Louisville and Lexington. But what about a Democrat who supports the national platform on coal/the environment such as President Obama? He does astoundingly worse in those same coal counties and only retains those urban ones. So mark my words, with her opposition to coal, Judd just cannot win. At best she'll be a drain of resources that might go to winnable races and at worst she could drag down the whole ticket, causing us to lose control of the state house or representatives.
So why do I support Ashley Judd running for Congress after all that? Well there's this other district she could run in and it's near her actual home in the state of Tennessee where she resides. You see there's this conservative incumbent there whom Judd could beat and easily win a seat in congress. What is this seat you say?
None other than Jim Cooper's TN-05 in Nashville.
Yep that's right, the same Jim Cooper who was the only Democrat to vote against relief for Superstorm Sandy victims.
The same Jim Cooper who helped sink the Clinton Health Care plan.
The same Jim Cooper who has a fetish for deficit hawkery.
The same Jim Cooper who is anti-choice.
The list goes on and on and all of this is from a district that Obama won by 13% and hasn't sent a Republican to congress since Reconstruction.
It's high time we replaced this worthless Blue Dog with a real progressive and if Ashley Judd wants to truly fight for liberal ideas and actually accomplish something she should be pragmatic and run for Congress in TN-05 and rid us of one of the few true conservadems in a safe seat. With her movie star power, Judd will easily have the funds to be competitive when local elected officials otherwise would not.
So Ashley Judd for congress. Retire Blue Dog Cooper.