Today in Americans like celebrities more than politicians, a new poll by The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler sees Matthew McConaughey top Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott and former Democratic Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke in the race for governor.
The poll, which surveyed 1,106 registered voters from November 9th to November 16th, put the Texan actor directly against the Republican incumbent and his Democratic challenger before asking participants to rank all three choices. Forty three percent of voters chose McConaughey — who has yet to officially announce a gubernatorial run — over Abbott, and 49% of voters chose him over O’Rourke. However, when given the choice between all three candidates, the incumbent Abbott came out on top with 37% of the vote. McConaughey followed with 27% of the vote, and O’Rourke received 26%.
McConaughey said he was giving “true consideration” to a run for governor back in March. Soon after, a similar poll by The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler saw 45% of voters prefer him over Abbott. As for his politics, the “aggressively centrist” actor recently said that while he and his family were all vaccinated against COVID-19, he wouldn’t mandate the shot for younger children.
This was all before O’Rourke entered the picture, however. Following a close Senate race against the constituency-abandoning Ted Cruz in 2018, and a less-close race for the presidency in 2020, the former punk rocker announced his gubernatorial run last week.
Abbott, O’Rourke, and (probably) McConaughey will battle to take charge of Texas in November 2022. With the way Abbott’s working to turn back civil rights, hopefully Texans can still vote by then.
