Former Miss America might challenge McConnell
Heather French Henry, a former Miss America title holder from Louisville, said Tuesday night that public and private figures are urging her to mount a bid to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.
While cautioning that she is "not ready to confirm or deny" her intent to run against McConnell, the former beauty queen, who was Miss America in 2000, said she is "completely honored that people are talking to me about this."
French Henry, a Democrat, added that she could support Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes as the Democratic nominee. Grimes has acknowledged that she is considering a bid but has not yet decided to dive in.
French Henry is married to Steve Henry, a Democrat who served as Kentucky's lieutenant governor from 1995-2003 and whose own checkered past as a public official would undoubtedly dog his wife's own prospective run.
In 2009, Steve Henry accepted a plea deal in a Kentucky court for three misdemeanors related to misusing campaign resources during a 2007 run in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
In 2003, he settled a federal lawsuit - to the tune of $162,000 - alleging he defrauded Medicare and Medicaid as a surgeon.
And after Steve Henry and Heather French Henry married in 2000, a state audit found that 25 state employees used 500 hours of their personal leave to work on the wedding. The Henrys reimbursed the state $3,200 for wedding expenses.
McConnell, Kentucky's senior senator, has seen some disappointing poll numbers this year, signaling that he might be vulnerable during the upcoming 2014 election, but Democrats have struggled to field a competitive challenger. Actress Ashley Judd, following months of speculation that she might challenge McConnell, announced in March that she would not enter the race.