Republicans launched a political ad in Kentucky last week attacking actress Ashley Judd as a ‘Hollywood liberal’ even though she has not yet decided to run for the US Senate.

The ad, backed by Republican strategist Karl Rove, prompted Judd to respond that she was grateful for the attention as she mulls a run against Republican US Senate leader Mitch McConnell in the 2014 Kentucky race. Rove launched a You Tube video ad last week suggesting the actress doesn’t fit the state’s conservative culture. In it, a narrator calls her a ‘Hollywood liberal’ and clips show her supporting President Barack Obama’s health reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

It also notes that Judd is not a Kentucky resident. She lives in Leiper’s Fork, a rural area favoured by country music stars about 15 miles southwest of Nashville, Tennessee. The mocking tone of the commercial concludes with the line: “Isn’t that what we need: Ashley Judd, an Obama-following, radical Hollywood liberal who is right at home here in Tennessee. I mean Kentucky.”