Family Research Council President Tony Perkins signaled he was open to running for Sen. David Vitter’s (R-LA) Senate seat.
Vitter, earlier in the week, formally announced his candidacy for governor in 2015. Because he’s not up for reelection until 2016 Vitter can run for governor without giving up his Senate seat.
Perkins suggested to The Hill on Wednesday that he would run for Vitter’s Senate seat if the current senator was elected governor.
“I never say never anymore,” Perkins told The Hill.
Perkins has hinted at possibly running either for Congress or Senate before. In the same interview with The Hill Perkins also jabbed at Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who’s running in the Senate race against Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA).
“I think his problem is his record. He’s been pretty weak on the issues. If the Republicans want to win, they actually need to find a stronger candidate,” Perkins said.
Cassidy is running against two other Republicans in the primary: Air Force Colonel Rob Maness and state Rep. Paul Hollis. A number of conservative outside groups have backed Maness over Cassidy. Perkins was asked if any of the candidates in that race appealed to him. He responded “not that has come to the forefront yet.” Asked if he would consider running against Landrieu, Perkins said he “rather somebody else” do it.
Perkins, TPM readers may recall, isn’t new to criticizing other Republicans. When then-Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) urged then-Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) to drop out of the Missouri Senate race Perkins warned Brown to be “careful.”
