Matthew McConaughey is once again expressing interest in a run for governor in his home state of Texas.
During an interview with The Balanced Voice podcast posted Wednesday, the actor called a potential run for Texas governor, “a true consideration.”
“I’m looking into now again, what is my leadership role?” McConaughey said to host Rania Mankarious. “Because I do think I have some things to teach and share, and what is my role? What’s my category in my next chapter of life that I’m going into?”
McConaughey, who won an Oscar in 2013 for his role in Dallas Buyers Club, is currently promoting his memoir Greenlights, which was published in 2020.
McConaughey previously talked about a potential gubernatorial run during an interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show last November.
During that talk, McConaughey seemed less than enthralled by the current state of politics, saying, “Look, politics seems to be a broken business to me right now. And when politics redefines its purpose, I could be a hell of a lot more interested.”
Greg Abbott, Texas’s current governor, is expected to run for a third term in 2022, and there is already speculation about other potential challengers. Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman and onetime challenger to Senator Ted Cruz, hasn’t ruled out a bid.
If McConaughey decides to run, it remains unclear which political party he’ll affiliate himself with. Though he has often voiced his opinions on particular issues, he has never publicly identified as either a Democrat or a Republican.
In 2018, McConaughey called gun violence “an epidemic in our country,” as reported by the AP.
But he also expressed concern that the Parkland High School students’ campaign for gun control might get “hijacked,” saying, “a lot of the crowd was for no guns at all. That was not the march for life. March for Our Lives was for rightful, just, responsible gun ownership — but against assault rifles, against unlimited magazines and for following up on the regulations.”
When asked about defunding the police on the Joe Rogan Experience, McConaughey similarly avoided taking a clear side in the debate.
“It’s almost like it should have been renamed, because ‘defund’ does not sound anything like there’s been money reallocated to different areas of handling some police exercise,” he said.
“The community and the police need to get back together, and the community needs to say, ‘Here’s what’s unfair. Here’s how I feel it’s unfair as a Black man or a person of color or whatever the situation. Here’s my problem with my relationship with you as cops,’” he added.
