McConaughey decides against joining race for Texas governor

By Derek Draplin | The Center Square

Actor Matthew McConaughey announced that he won’t run for governor of Texas despite favorable polling numbers. 

The Texas native was mulling a run, but said in a video posted on Twitter Sunday night it is “a path that I am choosing not to take at this moment.” 

“I’ve been listening, I’ve been learning, I’ve been measuring, I’ve been studying Texas politics and American politics,” he said. “What have I learned? A lot – that we have some problems we need to fix. That our politics needs new purpose. That we have divides that need healing.”

McConaughey said in the three-minute video that he’s hoping to serve in other ways, noting that he will “continue to work and invest the bounty I have by supporting entrepreneurs, businesses and foundations that I believe are leaders.”

A recent Dallas Morning News/University of Texas Tyler poll had McConaughey leading incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott 43% to 35% in a hypothetical matchup. 

The poll also had McConaughey leading Beto O’Rourke, who’s running for the Democratic nomination, 49% to 27%.

O’Rourke, the most high-profile Democrat to enter the 2022 race so far, lost the race for U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018 before launching a failed 2020 presidential bid.

Abbott faces Allen West, former head of the Texas GOP, and former Texas state Sen. Don Huffines, among other challengers in the Republican primary.