Christine O’Donnell not running for Senate

Christine O’Donnell announced her plans on Wednesday in a teasingly-worded email that some interpreted to suggest a return to the campaign trail.

In this age of rapid information sharing, a misread email can quickly generate tweets of breaking news that get the story completely wrong. That’s exactly what happened Wednesday morning when O’Donnell sent supporters an email with the teasing title, “My Official Announcement for the 2014 US Senate Seat.”

Some media outlets took that to mean that she was running for the Senate seat she lost to Chris Coons four years ago. But O’Donnell clarified her announcement in the body of the email, stating that she “will be launching two key projects in the next few weeks, yet neither will be a political campaign.”

The first of those two projects is a new weekly column that she will write for The Washington Times. The second project is what O’Donnell is calling the Legal Offense Fund. It will be a new non-profit group that will partner with attorneys and advocates.

She wrote in the email that the goal of the non-profit will be “to fight back against political bullying.”

After beating longtime Delaware Rep. Mike Castle in the 2010 Republican primary, O’Donnell’s campaign drew national attention. She was the frequent subject of monologue jokes from late-night comedians.

“As someone who has experienced political bullying first-hand, my resolve to reform our government is even stronger,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell said that she’s heard from many supporters encouraging her to run, but after the deaths of several loved ones and others who are battling terminal illness, “launching a political campaign coming off the heals [sic] of this turbulent time would not be easy on them.”

She plans to announce more details on her new non-profit group in the coming weeks.