Matthew McConaughey 'is quietly putting calls out to Texas politicians and business leaders to gauge support for his potential run for governor'
Matthew McConaughey has been quietly making calls to prominent Texas politicians and business leaders to test the viability of his candidacy as governor.
The 51-year-old Lone Star actor has been in talks with a wealthy moderate Republican and energy CEO to discuss him officially entering the race and their potential support, Politico reports.
Many are skeptical that McConaughey would be willing to give up his hugely successful Hollywood career for one in politics.
But the Dazed and Confused star has been teasing a run for governor for several months. Even if he did run, there is no guarantee he would win although a recent poll shows him eking into first place with more support from Democrats than Republicans.
McConaughey recently told The Hugh Hewitt Show that 'it would be up to the people more than it would me' whether he follows a career in politics.
Matthew McConaughey has been quietly making calls to prominent Texas politicians and business leaders to test the viability of his candidacy as governor
A recently released poll from the University of Texas found showed 45% of voters would support McConaughey over Abbott if the actor decided to run for office. The pair are pictured together here
And the odds are pretty good for the Dallas Buyers Club actor if he did decide to proceed. Out of more than 1,000 registered voters, 45 percent said they would vote for him if given the chance.
The odds were good particularly when compared to the incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott with just 33% promising the Governor their vote, according to a new poll conducted by The Dallas Morning News and The University of Texas Tyler.
When looking at individual parties, only 30% said they'd vote for McConaughey with 56% opting for Abbott.
In Democrat circles he commands a far more certain majority with 66% liking the sound of a Governor McConaughey.
McConaughey has openly talked of the possibility of running but always deferred saying 'it would be up to the people' on whether he'd run.
Politically speaking, McConaughey, who hails from Uvalde, Texas, west of San Antonio, has kept his leanings pretty close to his chest.
Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey (pictured), 51, has not ruled out the prospect of running for Governor of Texas
He has never said either way whether he would run as a Republican or a Democrat.
'I'm not teasing the idea — I'm actually looking at the idea and giving it serious consideration,' McConaughey told CNBC.
'I have a new chapter for myself, personally in my life. I believe it is in some sort of leadership role. I don't know what that role is. I don't know my category. We've been talking about the 'why' of leadership and even, I would say, we need some more good leaders.
'We've gotten to this spot where, 'You voice your opinion and it opposes mine. My gut reaction — our gut reaction — is 'Oh, you must be saying that at the exclusion of mine'… If I say I'm a believer, someone will say 'Oh, you must not believe in science.' Well, I didn't say that, I'm a believer and I believe in science…two different opinions can exist at the same time,' he said in a March interview.
Back in March, he told host of the Houston-based podcast and Crime Stoppers CEO Rania Mankarious that he had been looking to the future.
'I'm looking into now, what is my leadership role because I do think I have some things to teach and share,' he said.
'What is my role, what is my category in my next chapter of life that I'm going into now?'
Mankarious asked the actor if he was considering whether to run for governor of Texas, to which he responded: 'It's a true consideration.'
Oscar-winning Texan Matthew McConaughey could win should he run for Governor of Texas in a race against incumbent Greg Abbott
In the past, McConaughey has not labelled himself as either left or right leaning but said 'extremes' on both sides were 'unfair'.
He accused political 'illiberals' of 'completely 'illegitimising the other side' - saying that liberals are 'often being cannibalised' by hardliners on left and right.
He said there is 'no room for any consensus' and accused both sides of 'exaggerating' each other's positions into an 'irrational state'.
Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain late last year, he did not identify himself with either Democrats or Republicans. 'You need liberals, what I don't think we need is the illiberals and what I don't think that some liberals see is that they're often being cannibalised by the illiberals,' he said.
Asked by Piers Morgan about his views on free speech, McConaughey said that 'the extreme left and the extreme right completely illegitimize the other side, the liberal and the conservative side which we need in certain places.'
'The two extremes legitimize those two sides, or they exaggerate that side's stance into an irrational state that makes no sense - and that's not fair when either side does that,' he said.
'Where the waterline's going to land on this freedom of speech, and what we allow and what we don't and where this cancel culture goes, where that waterline lands is a very interesting place that we're engaged in right now as a society because we haven't found the right spot.'
McConaughey, 51, added: 'You've got to have confrontation to have unity, I think we can all agree on that, and that's when a democracy works really well.
'I would argue to say we don't even have true confrontation right now. True confrontation at least gives some validation to the opposing point of view or legitimizes the opposing point of view.
Ronald Reagan was also a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975. He is pictured with First Lady Nancy Reagan in 1984
Austrian-born actor and retired bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011. He is pictured here in 2020
'Right now, we don't have true confrontation because we don't even give legitimacy to an opposing point of view, we give no validation to it, we make that view persona non grata. In a way, it's sort of unconstitutional.'
Republican Gregg Abbott is currently up for reelection in the state in 2021.
Speaking on The Hugh Hewitt Show in November last year, McConaughey refused to rule out running for governor.
'I don't know. I mean, that wouldn't be up to me. It would be up to the people more than it would me,' he said.
'Look, politics seems to be a broken business to me right now. And when politics redefines its purpose, I could be a hell of a lot more interested.'
When later asked to expand on his comments, McConaughey said that while he has no plans of becoming involved in politics 'right now', he will consider 'leadership roles' in the future.
He said: 'As I move forward in life, yes, am I gonna consider leadership roles where I can be most useful.
'I'd love to. I'm doing that regardless.'
McConaughey, who won an Oscar for his role in 2013 AIDS drama Dallas Buyers Club, would be the latest in a line of actors who have won political office in the United States.
They include Presidents Donald Trump and the late Ronald Reagan, former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Carmel Mayor Clint Eastwood and former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura.
