Run Fred Run
Sphere: Related Content“Law & Order” star and former U.S. senator Fred Dalton Thompson is considering a bid for the White House that would test whether Hollywood can once again launch a Republican to the world’s premier political stage.His interest, confirmed in a brief interview this week, is generating buzz in Washington. He was third among Republican-leaning voters in a recent Gallup-USA Today survey, behind Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
The onetime senator from Tennessee is known to many Americans for playing New York District Attorney Arthur Branch on “Law & Order” and an admiral in the film “The Hunt for Red October.” But his real-life record as a no-nonsense lawmaker who also served as the minority counsel to the Senate Watergate committee is appealing to party activists dissatisfied with the current crop of Republican hopefuls.
“He has a conservative bearing and a conservative presence, but he’s independent in his thinking and his voting record,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who added that Thompson is “seriously considering” a presidential campaign at the urging of many friends. “He has a commanding television presence that makes every other politician in America jealous.”
Alexander, a friend of 40 years and twice a presidential candidate himself, said Thompson is likely to take his time deciding and could wait to enter the contest until around Labor Day. Recalling a well-attended Washington cocktail gathering held Sunday, Alexander said: “Fred Thompson was the talk of the party.”
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