Washington (CNN) Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush who has emerged as a prominent critic of President Donald Trump, announced that he is considering a run for Senate.

Painter, speaking at the Minnesota State Capitol on Wednesday, told reporters he is forming an exploratory committee that will look at what a campaign for the Minnesota US Senate seat vacated by Al Franken, and now held by Democrat Tina Smith, may look like.

"If I choose to enter this race, it will be to fix the problem of corruption in our government at the federal level," Painter said during the afternoon news conference, before explaining that he sees "a lot of room for someone like me" in the race because, over his career, he has sought to eliminate government corruption on all levels.

During a conversation with CNN, Painter said he announced an exploratory committee because he wants to see if a path to victory is viable. "I want to talk about real issues instead of the attacks and petty stuff that usually dominates political races these days," he said.

Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, went on to say he isn't sure if he'll run as a Republican. He said there are three options -- running as a Democrat, Republican or independent -- but that he needs to figure out which would best suit his candidacy.

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