The Texas gubernatorial election is already getting a bit interesting even though that race is still almost a year away.
Last week, former DNC Congressman Beto O’Rourke announced his intention to go against Governor Greg Abbott in 2022.
O’Rourke, who was a 2018 United States Senate candidate and a 2020 candidate for president (for a short time), has sharply criticized the GOP governor.
The Democrat has slammed Abbott’s support for laws that boost election integrity, banning abortions and allowing Texan citizens to have handguns without having permit, as reported by The Texas Tribune. He also went against the governor’s replies to the coronavirus pandemic and the winter power failure during the storms back in February.
Whether that is a winning message, we will have to wait and see, but right now, Texas would rather have actor Matthew McConaughey as governor than Beto O’Rourke.
In a poll by Texas University, Tyler, and The Dallas News, Matthew McConaughey was a lot more popular than the DNC hopeful.
Participants were asked if they would support either Matthew McConaughey or Beto O’Rourke if the Hollywood actor entered the election.
Forty-nine percent chose McConaughey compared to 27 percent who chose O’Rourke — a 22-point lead. Nineteen percent said they would vote for someone else, and 4 percent would not answer.
The poll featured a random number of 1,106 Texan voters surveyed through telephone and online November 9-16 and had a sampling error of around 2.9 percentage points.
McConaughey has not yet announced his campaign for governor but has spoken about it.
Politico said back in May that he had stated it was a “real consideration” and he was “quietly contacting people in Texas politics, including a deep-pocket moderate GOP member and energy company CEO, to test their temperature on the election.”
The Hill said in Sept. that McConaughey stated he was still in the process of “measuring it.”
Asked later by The NY Times what he meant by this, he said, “I like to measure things out before I jump in. And you have to partake before you have partook.”
Pressed further, he said, “Who will I be? Where can I be of the most use? Is politics a place for me to be of use to my family and to the people of Texas going forward?”
Author: Blake Ambrose
