Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey says Texas gubernatorial candidacy is ‘a real consideration’

Update at 7:21 p.m. with interview from NBC News.

Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey once again speaks about his bid for governor of Texas.

The Dallas Buyers Club The star had previously fended off speculation he would run for governor in 2022, but in an episode of Houston’s Crime Stoppers The balanced voice podcast which was released on Wednesday, he said running was “a real consideration”.

“I look, now again, what is my leadership role?” McConaughey said. “Because I think I have things to teach and to share. And what is my role? What is my category in my next chapter of life that I go to? “

In an interview with Al Roker on NBC News’ Today Airing Friday, McConaughey reaffirmed that he was considering the race.

“Am I considering this? Of course, ”said McConaughey. “What I have to choose for myself is that I want to take a leadership role in the next chapter of my life.”

McConaughey, 51, lives in Austin. He was born in Uvalde, west of San Antonio, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993.

He registered to vote at his Austin address in 2012 after the presidential election and has voted twice since then, according to Travis County records, in the 2018 and 2020 general elections – meaning he didn’t did not vote in the 2014 gubernatorial election in which Texans elected Republican. Greg Abbott, re-elected in 2018.

McConaughey has been staunchly apolitical, making headlines recently for criticizing both leftist and right-wing Hollywood “illiberal” election deniers on British comedian Russell Brand’s podcast. Under the skin.

McConaughey challenged people on both sides of the political spectrum to meet in the middle, saying being “aggressively centered” is “not a recession, it’s an aggressive move.”

McConaughey, as he promotes his New York Times best-selling book, Greenlights, was repeatedly asked if he would run for governor. He had flirted with the idea in the past, saying on the Hugh Hewitt Show in November that he had not ruled it out.

“It would be people more than me,” McConaughey said at the time. “I would say this. Look, politics seems like a broken case for me right now. And when the policy redefines its purpose, I might be much more interested.

He quickly dismissed political speculation in an interview the same month on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

“I don’t plan on doing that at the moment,” McConaughey said at the time. “Currently none. I have no policy. Politics seems like a broken business. Politics needs to redefine its purpose.”

However, he hasn’t completely ruled out a potential run.

“Whatever leadership role I can be most helpful in, and I don’t know it’s politics,” McConaughey said. “Right now, I don’t see it as politics – I’m going to drink this.

McConaughey wouldn’t be the first celebrity to run for governor of Texas. Singer-songwriter Kinky Friedman ran as an independent in 2006, garnering 12.6 percent of the vote and losing to Republican Governor Rick Perry.

To be a candidate for governor of Texas, you must be at least 30 years of age and have resided in the state for at least five years prior to the election. As governor, you may not hold any other office or practice a profession or earn a salary from any person or corporation, according to the Texas Constitution.