Poll Shows McConaughey Could Be
Texas Governor and Why He Won't

Capitol Inside
November 21, 2021

A new poll suggests that Matthew McConaughey would have a strong shot to be the next Texas governor if Democrat Beto O'Rourke wasn't a potentially insurmountable obstacle in the race at the top of the Texas ticket in 2022.

The survey that the Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler made public on Sunday found McConaughey leading Governor Greg Abbott by 8 points with 43 percent support when O'Rourke wasn't an option. The poll showed McConaughey crushing O'Rourke by 22 points in a hypothetical head-on clash without the incumbent as a choice in the gubernatorial sweepstakes in Texas next year.

But the poll also showed how the two-party system is stacked against the Academy award winning actor as a potential contender who hasn't said whether he's run as a Democrat, Republican or independent if he decides to pursue a career in politics.

The DMN-UT-Tyler survey of 1,106 Texas voters during the second week of November shows Abbott at the front of the pack in a threeway competition with both O'Rourke and McConaughey. The survey found Abbott with 37 percent support with McConaughey and O'Rourke splitting the anti-incumbent vote fairly evenly with 27 percent and 26 percent respectively. Such a contest could only occur if McConaughey ran for governor as an independent.

The problem for McConaughey is evident in a question on whether the Texas voters in the sample would support the actor or O'Rourke in a possible pairing at the polls next year. McConaughey led O'Rourke 49 percent to 27 percent among all voters. O'Rourke trailed Abbott by a mere 6 percentage points however.

But 52 percent of the Democrats in the survey favored O'Rourke compared to a mere 34 percent in the McConaughey camp. Sixty-two percent of the Republicans who were surveyed by the DMN and UT-Tyler favored Abbott in a duel with McConaughey without O'Rourke as an alternative.

The poll finding's make it appear that McConaughey would be an early favorite in the governor's contest in a general election as the Democratic nominee. O'Rourke appears to have the Democratic nomination for governor all but locked up, however, leaving McConaughey with no viable path to the job by virtue of his political independence.

While McConaughey identifies more with Democrats on the major issues, he's vowed to govern as a centrist if elected to the job of Texas chief executive. McConaughey has three weeks before the filing deadline to decide if he wants to take the conventional course by filing to run in the Democratic or GOP primary election on March 1.

more to come ...