Ariana Garcia, Houston Chronicle (TNS)
Actor Matthew McConaughey is apparently not interested in running for Texas governor unless he thinks the role would allow him to truly make a difference.
On Thursday, the Texas-born actor went on the New York Times Opinon’s Sway podcast, an interview show hosted by Kara Swisher, and explained what he meant by “measuring” a possible run for governor next year, saying he is still learning about politics from mentors — who he refrained from naming — and is considering how useful he would be in the position.
“Is that a place to make real change or is it a place where right now it’s a fixed game, you go in there, you just put on a bunch of band-aids, in fours year you walk out and they rip them off and you’re gone?” the actor told Swisher. “I’m not interested in that.”
The self-proclaimed “folk-singing philosopher, poet-statesman” went on to call politics a “broken business” when it comes to political ideologies and said he fears a civil war if politicians remain on a path of “preservation of party” while not truly considering their constituents. McConaughey also reasoned that he could have have more influence in an informal role.
With regards to fixing this issue, McConaughey said, “One side I’m arguing is ‘McConaughey exactly, that’s why you need to go get in there. The other side is ‘that’s a bag of rats man. Don’t touch that with a ten foot pole. You have another lane. You have another category to have influence and get done things you’d like to get done and help how you think you can help and even heal divides.’”
When asked about El Paso congressman and potential opponent Beto O’Rourke recently throwing some shade at McConaughey for his ambiguous politics, the actor said “Coming from Beto, I don’t take that as shade. He called me a good man. I say he’s a good man... he believes in what he’s selling and his heart is in the right place and he’s got the right compassion that a liberal-sided politician needs.”
Swisher also asked McConaughey about his party affiliation, pointing to former presidential and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang calling for a new third party. The actor declined to outright pick a team, calling himself more of a centrist.
“People want a third party and we’ve got one and it doesn’t have a name right now and it is the majority,” McConaughey said. “I’m hesitant to throw labels... but there is a sleeping giant right now. I think it’s necessary to be aggressively centric to possibly salvage democracy in America right now.”
While not directly taking sides, McConaughey hinted at where he stands on some issues, saying he is for mask mandates and does not agree with Texas’ newly enforced abortion ban, calling it “juvenile in its implementation.”
He dodged talking about other policies, arguing he doesn’t know enough about the hard-fought Texas voting bill Senate Bill 1 to form an opinion but thinks it should be easy and accessible to vote. McConaughey also said he finds the legalization of psychedelics for mental health treatment “interesting” but would like to study how states have benefited from such legislation before throwing his support behind it.
Wrapping up the interview, the actor said Texas and the country are not in a good place right now but all hope is not lost.
“I go to the individual,” McConaughey said. “It’s not going to happen by a policy. It’s going to have to be a personal choice that more of us are going to have to make on our own and that collectively will build the army that’s going to get us out of this not to just survive, but thrive.”
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