This Candidate Might Beat Abbott For Governor In Texas

Governor Abbott has not been an effective governor for Texas, but he is still popular with Republicans in the state. And the early prediction for the governor's race in 2022 is that Abbott will coast to another win.

The Democrats need someone popular who can shake up the race if they are to have a chance. And there just might be someone. Actor Matthew McConaughey says he might run for governor.

Here's how the Austin American-Statesman covers that possibility:

Oscar-winning Texas actor Matthew McConaughey says he might run for governor, but it would be “up to the people” to make it so.

“I would say this: Look, politics seems to be a broken business to me right now,” McConaughey told conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday. “And when politics redefines its purpose, I could be a hell of a lot more interested.”

The 51-year-old actor who makes Austin his home did not say whether he’s a Democrat, Republican or unaffiliated. In past interviews, the actor said he’s politically “in the middle.” The next gubernatorial election is in 2022 and incumbent Republican Greg Abbott says he plans to seek a third term.

In the radio interview, McConaughey lamented the political polarization that marked the recently ended presidential election.

“I want to get behind personal values to rebind our social contracts with each other as Americans, as people again,” McConaughey told Hewitt .

“I mean, that (a run for office) wouldn’t be up to me. It would be up to the people more than it would me.”

McConaughey, who is a film professor at the University of Texas and holds the ceremonial tile of Texas’ minister of culture, went on Hewitt’s show to promote his memoir, “Greenlight.”

McConaughey’s break out performance was as Wooderson in the 1993 coming-of-age movie “Dazed and Confused,” which was set in Austin. He won the Oscar for best actor the 2013 film “Dallas Buyers Club.”