Rep. Yarmuth won't run against Sen. McConnell

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) won't challenge Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2014, he told The Hill on Friday.

"I'm very happy with my district and very happy in the House. I think there will be stronger candidates statewide than I would be," he said. "There are people probably that don't have a record that would alienate a lot of people off the bat."

He said his opposition to mountaintop removal mining made him a less than ideal choice statewide and, with a laugh, said that his lifetime "F" rating from the National Rifle Association is "probably a little bit of a liability" in Kentucky.

Yarmuth, the state's only Democratic congressman to win reelection, has been a frequent critic of McConnell's, and said he is "very interested" in making sure there's a "serious challenge to Mitch." He floated actress Ashley Judd and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) as the two most likely candidates to run against the Senate minority leader.

He said Lundergan Grimes had run a "very impressive statewide race" and that her relatively young age and family connections (her father is a former Democratic Party chairman in the state) could help her make the race close. He also said that he'd talked to Judd right after the election and that she's "seriously considering it" and "doing everything that someone exploring the race ought to be."

When asked about outgoing Rep. Ben Chandler (D-Ky.), a centrist Democrat who just lost his reelection campaign, Yarmuth said he'd "certainly be a tough candidate" but that he hadn't talked to him about the race.

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