Larry Kudlow ‘leaning towards’ Senate run after Iran vote

Economist and television pundit Larry Kudlow is “leaning towards” challenging Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) after the sitting lawmaker voted to support the nuclear deal with Iran.

“We’re looking at it really carefully,” Kudlow said on WFSB-TV’s “Face the State” this weekend.

“I’m leaning towards it,” he added. “I’m not ready to make an announcement. As you know there’s a lot of moving parts to these things.”

{mosads}Earlier this summer, Kudlow pledged on his radio show to run for the Senate if Blumenthal ended up voting for the Iran deal, as he did.

“I’m very disappointed in that vote,” he said. “I think it was a terrible vote. I think he put party over country.”

Comments from Kudlow seemed to hint toward a run.

He claimed that, as an outsider, he might be able to tap in to some of the frustration at the persistent gridlock in Washington. Kudlow also seemed hopeful that he could secure the fundraising to make a solid play in Connecticut, which has a relatively expensive media market.  

“I’m talking to people about that and trying to figure out,” he said. “I think there’s money out there.”

Kudlow, a former Democrat, also seemed intent on extending his message beyond the traditional GOP base.

“I want the GOP to expand,” he said, while referring specifically to gay and African-American voters. “I’m going to go to the churches and I’m going to go wherever they’ll let me go.”

“I believe my free enterprise model will work better for them than the government welfare model they’ve been living with under the Democratic Party,” he claimed. “I’m going to make that case.”

Kudlow previously considered running for the Senate from New York in 2010 in an effort to take down Sen. Charles Schumer (D).