Actor Matthew McConaughey, according to a new poll, leads Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, with double figures in a hypothetical election game.
McConaughey, who won an Oscar for Best Actor in 2014 for his starring role in Dallas Buyers Club and lives in Austin, is a newcomer to politics, but has criticized Republicans and Democrats in recent months.
The actor suggested that he hold relatively moderate political views, and published a new mood by The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler on Sunday suggests he could have a path to election politics if he were to challenge Abbott in 2022.
The poll showed McConaughey was 12 points ahead of Abbott, well outside the poll’s margin of error of minus 2.92 percentage points. The actor was supported by 45 percent of voters in Texas, while the current governor was supported by only 33 percent of respondents. Meanwhile, another 22 percent of voters in the southwestern state said they would vote for someone else.
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The star of Interstellar and The lord did not announce definitive plans to seek any office, but speculation has surfaced as to whether McConaughey may be planning to run due to recent comments he has made in interviews.
It is also unclear whether McConaughey would act as a Republican, Democrat or third-party candidate. CBS News affiliate KHOU 11 in Houston reported in March that the actor had not voted in a Texas primary since at least 2012.
In early March, the 51-year-old actor told Crime Stoppers of Houston The balanced voice podcast that it was a ‘real consideration’ to serve for the governor of Texas. “I’m looking at it again now, what’s my leadership role?” he said.
“Because I do think I have some things to learn and share, and what’s my role? What’s my category in my next chapter of the life I’m going into?” the actor continues.
In an interview with Russell Brand’s podcast Under the skin in early December, McConaughey criticized the “illiberal left”.
“There are a lot of those illiberal links that are absolutely condescending, begging and arrogant toward the other 50 percent,” the Texas resident at the time said: People report. ‘I’m sure you saw it in our industry then [former President Donald] Trump voted four years ago, denying it really was. Some of them were in absolute denial. ‘
“It looks like Biden is our guy,” the actor added. “Now you have the right to be denied, because their side has false news. And I understand that they got false news. No one knows what the hell to believe, or how? Bastion of defense.”
Before that in November, McConaughey said The Hugh Hewitt Show that he regarded the current political system as ‘broken’.
‘Look, it seems to me that politics is a broken issue at the moment. And when politics redefines its purpose, I can be much more interested, ‘he said.
During an October interview with Fox News, the celebrity directed Democrats and Republicans to politicize the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I saw both sides, I saw how right and left use only the bodies that are useful to win. And it makes my stomach ache, man. I did not appreciate it,” McConaughey said.
Actors and celebrities turning to politics are not unheard of at all. Former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican who spent most of the 1980s in the White House, was an actor before becoming politically active. Although Trump gained notoriety through his real estate empire, his name recognition and national reputation have grown greatly in recent years due to his popular TV show The apprentice.
Meanwhile, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – best known for his starring role in the Fast and furious franchise – has been pursuing the possibility of seeking an elected office for several years.