"Law & Order: SVU" star Diane Neal could be trading in the courtroom for the Congressional floor.
The actress, who portrayed Casey Novak in the long-running drama from 2003 to 2008, and again in the 2011-12 season, announced on Twitter that she's seeking public office in New York. She still needs to do get 3,500 signatures to put herself on the November ballot for the state's 19th Congressional District.
She is a registered Democrat, but she's running as an Independent.
Diane took to social media to announce her intentions on Tuesday.
"MORNING! Ok, so it's ON!!! But I'm doing with nearly no staff, no donations (yet), with no party. Website will be up later today (fingers crossed) and all ready to go. But goal is bigger than parties. Goal is no negativity. Goal is HIGH ROAD all the way," she wrote.
She later added, "Off to finish web stuff. I'll be back. SOON. THANK YOU for all love and support. It going to be a wild ride. I'll be beholden to no one but US and to integrity & to the best version envisioned by imperfect, but wise, men centuries ago. Let the Grand Experiment live on!!!"
She later posted a campaign poster to Twitter that indicated she would focus on "empathy & reason."
"And that's why I dropped off social- to think, read, write, ponder," she wrote. "Reacquaint with every bit of Political Phil., History and Ethics from The Republic to Rackove. To make a plan for us worthy of American Ideals. So…"
In an interview with The Daily Freeman, she said she's not the type of person to vote strictly along party lines and believes her politics are "a lot of everything."
"I'm a little Libertarian, I'm a lot liberal, mostly progressive, but I have this amazing ability to be able to take really complicated policy and break it down into edible sound bites," she said, "which is something most progressive liberals cannot do."