Despite not having officially announced a run for the position of Texas governor, actor Matthew McConaughey has outpolled the sitting governor Greg Abbot. The Texas born-and-raised actor has teased a potential run for governor, and seems to have the support of Texas voters, Entertainment Weekly reports.
The poll, which surveyed 1126 registered voters in Texas, was released Sunday by The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas. 45% of those polled said they would vote for potential celebrity candidate Matthew McConaughey, where 33% preferred incumbent Greg Abbott, and another 22% said they would rather vote for someone else.
McConaughey had more support from Democratic voters, with 66% of them preferring him to the other options, while only 30% of Republican voters showed support for the actor. McConaughey has described himself as a centrist, and in the past has criticized both Democrats and Republicans, so it’s unclear how an actual campaign from the actor would go.
“Right now, where politics has gone, where the great divide not only in Texas but in the United States, the left thinks the right’s racist and the right thinks the left’s Socialist. Well, that ain’t true.” McConaughey said in an explanation of his politics in an interview with the Austin American-Statesman. “Then you go, well, the left is for empathy, compassion and solidarity; well the right’s for resilience and work ethic and responsibility. I’m like, I like all six of those. Those are values that our mamas taught us.”
If McConaughey does decide to run for governor, he could be the latest in a long line of celebrity governors that includes Ronald Reagan, “Governator” Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jesse Ventura. McConaughey still hasn’t decided whether it’s the right path for him, however, saying “I’m ready to step into a leadership position in this next chapter of my life, but I don’t know that that’s in politics.”
