AUSTIN – Celebrities running for office is a tale as old as time, but for the Austinite turned mascot and persona of the state, things may have just gotten a little more real for Matthew McConaughey.
In a recent interview on Hugh Hewitt’s radio program, the actor did not rule out the possibility of running for office in the Lone Star State.
On Tuesday, Hewitt asked McConaughey plainly if he would run for any political office in Texas.
“I don’t know. I mean, that wouldn’t be up to me. It would be up to the people more than it would me,” McConaughey said. I would say this. 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.”
Much like when Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for governor in California, Hewitt said McConaughey would have a unique opportunity as a celebrity to leverage change in the state.
So, what does the Academy Award winner want to do? McConaughey says he wants to “rebind social contracts with each other as Americans and people again.”
“No matter what side of the aisle you’re on, or as I said earlier, denomination, we have broken those social contracts,” McConaughey said. We don’t trust each other, and that leads to us not trust in ourselves, which if that becomes, if that becomes epidemic, then we’ve got anarchy.”
If you’re asking yourself when McConaughey will drop the Lincoln commercials and kick off his campaign, you may be in for a wait. McConaughey said the country has to stabilize after a divisive election before he or anyone can point the country or state in the right direction.
Click here to see a full transcription of Hewitt’s conversation with McConaughey. Or watch the second part of the interview with Hewitt in the player below:
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