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Deadline: Time Running Down For McConaughey On Texas Governor Run

   DailyWire.com
AUSTIN, TEXAS - JANUARY 21: Matthew McConaughey participates in a Q&A after a special screening of his new film "The Gentlemen" at Hogg Memorial Auditorium at The University of Texas at Austin on January 21, 2020 in Austin, Texas.
Gary Miller/Getty Images

All right all right all right.

Actor Matthew McConaughey is famously laid back. In his infamous car commercials, he speaks in riddle while leaning back in the comfy driver’s seat.

“Sometimes you got to go back … to actually move forward, and I don’t mean going back to reminisce, or chase ghosts, I mean going back to see where you came from, where you’ve been, how you got here and see where you’re going. I know there are those that say you can’t go back. Yes, you can. You just have to look in the right place,” he says in one commercial.

But the mellowmeister better get it in gear if he plans to run for governor in Texas.

The filing deadline for the March 1 primary is December 13, about seven weeks from now. More over, his potential opponents have been raising cash for months, if not years.

McConaughy has been making noises for months that he might run, stoking speculation. A recent poll shows the actor doing better than Democrat Beto O’Rourke, another candidate for the governorship, and against current Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, beating Abbott 44-35%, according to the Dallas Morning News.

But some think McConaughey is just gaming the system.

“He appears to be simply enjoying the publicity. It doesn’t work that way. He needs to pick a party,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, told the Los Angeles Times, “Nobody knows what this guy stands for.”

Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said “I’m deeply skeptical.”

“I’m not really interested unless he commits. If he’s going to do it, he would do everyone a service by not stringing us along,” Henson said, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Last month, McConaughey said he is still “measuring” a potential gubernatorial run in Texas next year, according to reports.

“Look, it’s going to be in some capacity. … I just — I’m more of a folksy and philosopher-poet statesman than I am a, per se, definitive politician,” McConaughey said on the “Set‌ ‌it‌ ‌Straight:‌ ‌Myths‌ ‌and‌ ‌Legends” podcast Tuesday, according to The Hill. “So I go, well, that’s a reason not to, but then I go, no, that’s exactly why you should, because politics needs redefinition, but I’m measuring, you know, what is my category? What’s my embassy?”

On the podcast, the hosts urged McConaughey — who has not declared a party affiliation but has sided often with Democrats, including on issues like gun control — to make a run.

“I have to remain an artist,” he said, The Hill reported. “I’ve earned my right to enjoy that Saturday night part of life, that music part of life. It has to have music to it. You know what I mean. I’m very good at being diligent, Monday morning, practical, structure, I’m all of that. But I gotta’ continue to be an artist in what I do.”

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