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And occasionally some of them lose their sense of direction.
The latest? Austinite Matthew McConaughey, who is pondering a run for governor of Texas. The Academy Award winner recently told the Longview News-Journal, “I’m serious about the right leadership role but I’m not sure if that’s in politics.”
Let me offer him some friendly advice from someone who has spent decades reporting on my state’s government: stay out of Texas politics. McConaughey is exactly what the state does not need — someone with great talent in his chosen profession and no known experience in public office or politics.
Texans are struggling with serious issues: busted energy infrastructure, rising housing costs, inadequate health care access for almost 20% of residents, and an influx of newcomers — many of whom may need state services which lawmakers have resisted funding adequately, including Medicaid and public schools.
Don’t those problems just cry out for the insights of an actor?
And let’s be honest. This script has already been written, and it hasn’t always been a box office hit. The most recent US president was unquestionably a celebrity, with zero experience in public service, and Americans paid the price, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Perhaps McConaughey has studied the career arc of actor-turned-President Ronald Reagan and thinks he can become the next great political communicator.
And, yes, other celebrities successfully made the leap to the governorship — Jesse Ventura in Minnesota and Arnold Schwarzenegger in California, for example. Though opponents threw shade when they announced their runs and pundits gave them mixed reviews once they left office, when Ventura and Schwarzenegger were elected, their personalities and policies met the moments in their respective states. Meanwhile, Texans can’t even decipher what party — let alone what policy — McConaughey supports.
For now, the actor is only talking about the possibility of the governorship, not the White House. But Texas governors have a history of dreaming of the presidency.
Think about George W. Bush. He had never held public office when he became Texas governor, which he then used as a platform to launch his presidential run. And by the time he headed back to his ranch after eight years in Washington DC, he had taken Americans into two endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — each carrying $2 trillion price tags, bungled the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and led the country into the…
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