For Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), it's never too early to start thinking about 2014.
McConnell spoke before dozens of supporters at his campaign headquarters on Saturday, stressing that he expects his Senate reelection campaign to be a dogfight.
"Now, the reason you're here today is cause they want to take me out," said McConnell, according to CN2 Kentucky. "This is the only race, as I indicated, in the country with any national significance. And that's why we're up and running this far in advance."
After 28-plus years in the Senate, McConnell is already experiencing resistance in the Bluegrass State. Among his adversaries is Progress Kentucky, a small super PAC formed by Democratic activist Shawn Reilly to oust the GOP veteran from office.
"Nobody else is doing it," Reilly told HuffPost's Paul Blumenthal last month. "So let's start a super PAC and make it a grassroots effort. Make it of the people of Kentucky and for the people of Kentucky."
At the candidate level, actress Ashley Judd has established herself as a possible opponent. As of Jan. 21, Judd had not decided whether to run against McConnell, vowing that she was "certainly taking a close look" at the possibility.
A little more than a week later, word broke that Judd was divorcing her husband of 11 years. Some have speculated that this would be a factor swaying her away from political campaigning.
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