The Connecticut Republican Party is eyeing former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson as a possible candidate to run for the U.S. Senate in 2018, according to a report.
The Hearst Connecticut Media reported Thursday that a party source indicated that state GOP Chairman J.R. Romano is considering Carlson as part of a behind-the-scenes effort to find a viable challenger to face off against incumbent Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy in 2018.
Romano seemed to deny the source’s claim Wednesday, saying, “that’s news to me.” But Romano did add that Carlson would be “a great candidate. I think she’d be a tremendous asset to the ticket.”
Jodie Magid, a spokeswoman for Carlson, didn’t confirm the report, but didn’t deny it either. “We haven’t heard it to be true,” she said, according to Hearst Connecticut Media.
Carlson, a former co-host of “Fox and Friends” filed a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit last year against former Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. Carlson reportedly settled with Fox News in September, on behalf of Ailes, for $20 million. Ailes resigned from the company in July of 2016 amid the scandal.
In February, it was reported that Carlson was in talks to join MSNBC, which the network then denied.
If Carlson did join MSNBC, she would follow in the footsteps of another former Fox News fixture, Greta Van Susteren, who now has her own show on the network. Megyn Kelly also recently left Fox News in order to join NBC News earlier this year.
