Despite Hollywood actress Ashley Judd’s high-profile political rollout, national Democrats appear to be looking for an alternative Senate candidate in Kentucky to challenge Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell next year. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, for instance, has remained cool to a Judd candidacy. DSCC executive director Guy Cecil told ABC News that Judd is just one of “a handful of quality candidates in Kentucky” and that there is a “deep bench” of challengers to McConnell. Meanwhile, former Democratic senator Wendell Ford recently met with Judd but said the Democratic party might be able to run a “better candidate” than her.

That lead Louisville political columnist Nick Storm to speculate whether Ford and Bill Clinton, the last Democratic presidential candidate to win Kentucky, are “holding out” their support for someone else—someone like 34-year-old secretary of state Alison Lundergan Grimes. Clinton met with Grimes last week in Owensboro, Howard Fineman reported, to “privately advise” her about her political future. Clinton had written Grimes a personal check for her 2011 race for secretary of state.