TX Voters Prefer Ex-'Bongo Boy' McConaughey Over Abbott — For Now

DALLAS — Will Matthew McConaughey make the jump from the silver screen to the state house?

Pundit fingers are in the wind today wondering whether the Academy Award-winning actor will try to trade his stardom for political capital. A new Dallas Morning News/University of Texas at Tyler poll shows him leading current governor Greg Abbott in a potential 2022 match up, with 45 percent supporting the movie star and 33 percent favoring Abbott.

Neither the actor nor the governor has commented on the poll.

For McConaughey, it's a long way from an arrest in 1999, when he was escorted naked and stoned from his Austin home for playing his bongos too loud too late.

This morning, even George W. Bush couldn't resist mulling over the possibility on NBC's Today show. When his daughter Jenna asked him about the race for the office he once held, the former president offered his bemused interest. "I have no idea," he said wryly. "I'll just tell you this. It's a tough business (politics). The question is, are we able to set aside our partisan differences and solve problems?"

Should McConaughey run, political dominoes begin to tumble in multiple directions.

• Former El Paso Congressman and Democrat Beto O'Rourke has been eying the governor's job. What would McConaughey's entry mean for him? After narrowly losing his senate race against Ted Cruz, winning the state house could return O'Rourke to national prominence. And remember: while being governor of Texas is a more ceremonial role than many elsewhere in America, it vaulted Ann Richards into the limelight and launched two presidential bids — one led to two terms in office under George W. Bush, and two unsuccessful attempts by his successor, Rick Perry.

• For his part, Abbott has been tacking to the right like a sailboat with a broken rudder for more than a year. His response to gun violence in the state (including his remedy of "thoughts and prayers") has earned him kudos from Second Amendment advocates. Conversely, his open-early, end mask mandates ASAP policies may have caused alarm among scientists and medical experts during the COVID crisis, but his reluctant shutdown of the state last year was still regarded as government overreach by conservative Texans.

For Abbott, the possibility that both O'Rourke and McConaughey might run for his job could be a dream come true, since it could create a rift in anti-Abbott factions.

• At the center of the maelstrom is McConaughey himself — by all accounts an affable fellow who's made friends on both sides of the aisle, not by being bi-partisan, but by being non-partisan. Photo op with GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton? Check. Grin for the cameras next to Beto? Double check. He's against gun violence, but doesn't support efforts to defund the police.

To date, the film star has said only that he'd "be a fool" not to consider running. And, lest anyone think (as Politico theorizes) that he's an "empty vessel" because his political views don't line up neatly on the left or right, media stars do have one thing in common: they shake things up.

Donald J. Trump is a prime example of that, but the same was true of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura and that other actor who did pretty well in the political arena, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Ultimately, this poll could result in more smoke than fire. And it's possible that McConaughey is only allowing the story enough oxygen to promote his new memoir, Greenlights. But what it does prove is that while Texans can be rigidly iconoclastic in some ways, they can be surprisingly open to fresh ideas as well. And with Texas less reliably red than ever, all eyes are on the 2022 race.

More broadly, we as Americans, are getting used to the idea that celebrities make good politicians. They're comfortable among crowds of adoring fans. They're used to the press (whether they like them or don't), and they understand that public service is not so different from being a Marvel superhero. Name recognition puts you a leg up on the competition, and that raises the odds that your campaign, whether it's for success at the box office or elected office, could be the hit of the season.

Now, a show of hands: Who's ready to sing "Texas, Our Texas" and end it with "All right, all right, all right?"