Matthew McConaughey won't rule out running for Texas governor
AUSTIN, Texas - Oscar-winning actor and Texas native Matthew McConaughey won't rule out a run for the highest office in Texas.
During an interview on broadcast journalist and law professor Hugh Hewitt's podcast, McConaughey said that a potential run "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."
DOWNLOAD THE FOX 7 AUSTIN NEWS APP
SIGN UP FOR FOX 7 AUSTIN EMAIL ALERTS
In the interview, which was centered around McConaughey's recent New York Times best-selling memoir "Greenlights," McConaughey also spoke about other actors/entertainers who became governor in their respective states, including Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and Jesse Ventura in Minnesota.
McConaughey remarked on how "money and fame" are what America gives "credit and respect."
RELATED: Matthew McConaughey addresses UT students in a heartfelt video amid coronavirus outbreak
"And I said guys, just on a very base level, Trump has those, so I don’t know why we should be so surprised that he got elected," McConaughey said. "Now then came, you know, policies and the politics of the last four years, which have become, you know, you know more about him than just when he first came in as someone who was on TV and also had a lot of money.
"But yeah, I remember when Arnold came out, and seeing Ventura up there, I was like oh, there’s different people in the entertainment zeitgeist that are getting into politics," he continued. "You know, I still question how much you can really get done in politics, and I don’t know if politics is my avenue to get what maybe I am best equipped to get done."
RELATED: Matthew McConaughey plays virtual bingo with Texas senior living facility residents in quarantine
RELATED: Matthew McConaughey, wife Camila donate 80K face masks to first-responders
McConaughey also spoke about how he wants to "get behind personal values to rebind our social contracts with each other as Americans, as people again."
"No matter what side of the aisle you’re on, or as I said earlier, denomination, we have broken those social contracts," he 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."
A devoted Texas Longhorns fan, McConaughey currently serves as UT Austin's Minister of Culture and is one of the owners of the new Major League Soccer team Austin FC.