The powerful pro-choice group EMILY's List is endorsing Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky's 2014 U.S. Senate race.

The group had encouraged Grimes to get in the Senate race as early as March, and has been helping the first-term secretary of state raise money in a bid to unseat Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell next year.

In an e-mail to supporters, EMILY's List President Stephanie Schriock called Grimes an "energetic rising star" who can beat McConnell.

Could Grimes' support for abortion-on-demand hurt her in a conservative state like Kentucky? Nationwide polling has shown that opposition to a limit on late-term abortion and support for taxpayer-funded abortion under Obamacare is deeply unpopular. And Kentucky voters are much more "pro-life" than the average American voter.

The Huffington Post's Howard Fineman recently reported that Grimes "told [him] that she was pro-choice down the line on abortion," but Grimes has not specifically spelled out her position on late-term limits or taxpayer-funding.