A blank slate with the greatest campaign slogan you could possibly imagine.
“Let’s Make Texas Alright, Alright, Alright.”
I completely do not understand the Democrats who want McConaughey to run for Governor. He has expressed literally no political views. He has never been involved in politics at any level – he hasn’t even voted in a primary or made a political contribution.
There are certainly examples of celebrities who have had political success, but almost all of them had some sort of campaign or political experience. Schwarzenegger married into the Kennedy clan and had been in Republican party circles. Ronald Reagan ran for SAG president before running for Governor. Even Trump had a previous run at the Reform Party nomination in 2000.
As @Dewey_Finn says, right now he’s a blank slate on which people can project whatever they want. All that ends the minute he declares for governor.
Nitpick: isn’t that a picture of Matthew Modine??
That’s no Matthew at all, that’s Beto.
T seems like every Democrat I know in Dallas wants Clay Jenkins to run. He’s our county judge, which what we call the highest elected county official. No one even knew his name before COVID, but mask mandates and lockdowns have put County Judges (not mayors) center stage all over the state. He’s just consistently impressed people with his response to COVID, especially his determined resistance to the Governor.
Personally, I do feel like he’s the sort of Democrat that could get elected: he’s a very Christian old white dude. He’s like, an old-school Democrat, and gives the impression of competence and common sense before all else. That’s the sort of Democrat we need: not someone to match Crazy Republican Rhetoric, but someone people can see will be able to keep the lights on.
But he lacks state-wide recognition, and he’s pretty busy right now with COVID.
Well, that’s sort of the point. If you believe that the problem with Democrats winning in Texas is that they are Democrats then nominating someone who is running on Democratic ticket who isn’t a life-long Democrat might not be the worst idea. I could easily see McConaughey doing some “centrist Democrat” dance where he just rattles off the most popular position. It’s much easier to be a populist when you don’t have a political past to pin you down.
Now that’s just from a “get elected” standpoint. I have no interest in electing non-politicians to political jobs, as they tend to not really have the chops to do the job right.
But if Texas governor is really more of a figurehead position, and the nuts-and-bolts job is Lt Gov, then perhaps a figurehead that’s not a right-wing ideologue like Abbott, but doesn’t really have any truly left-wing statements to tar him, with has a shot.
I’m skeptical that Democrat’s road to the Governor’s mansion lies in nominating an “old school Democrat” – i.e. an older, centrist, establishment white guy. That’s been the Democratic playbook for years in red-to-purple states and it’s rarely worked. That’s what they had with Bill White in 2010, and he lost to Rick Perry by 12 points. That’s what Joe Biden ran as, and he lost Texas by six points – respectable, but still a loss.
The “old white guy” theory only works if there are a significant number of GOP-leaning voters who would vote for a Democrat they’re more comfortable with. But partisanship is so locked in these days that I don’t think that’s likely to any significant degree. Better for Democrats to nominate someone who can build enthusiasm among D-leaning voters and energize low-turnout voters.
I think the illustrative example is Georgia, where Ossoff and Warnock became the state’s first Jewish and African-American Senators by driving unprecedented turnout among minority and young voters. And they did so embracing the standard Democratic platform without having to make a show about how “centrist” they are by bucking the party (cough Joe Manchin cough).
I don’t know if Texas is quite at the “Georgia paradigm” yet, but I think that’s the future. I don’t know who gets us there, but it’s going to be a big lift.
Beto will raise lots of money and lose maybe 55-45. The only thing that matters in getting elected statewide in Texas is having an (R) next to your name. And even then you have to have shown sufficient obsequiousness to Saint Donald.
Not in the current climate. He might have had a small chance back in 2018, maybe around 10-15 percent. There’s no way any Democrat beats Abbott in 2022. The electorate is too inelastic for that. What remains of the moderate Republicans will fall in line.
The alternative is someone who is not Abbott and at least a decent person as well as who has some chance of winning. Matthew McConaughey is the answer. If he runs, IMHO the Democrats should stay out of this particular race.
I don’t expect that he’ll be a Great Liberal Savior or anything like that. The Great Liberal Savior, whoever that might be (and it’s not Beto) has zero chance of winning, so why bother waiting for someone like that? Wendy Davis? Lupe Valdez? No chance. I’ll settle for anyone who isn’t batshit crazy / pandering to the batshit crazies, even if they have several positions I disagree with. To put out a name who is well known and whose politics I disagree with (although obviously this individual won’t be running) I would support George W Bush over Abbott.
My concern with McConaughey isn’t even really about his (nonexistent) positions. It’s whether he’s got the commitment to see through everything involved in a campaign for Governor. As the top of the ticket, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate has a massive responsibility for assisting down-ballot candidates and helping the party as a whole be successful. Is he going to sit through countless rubber chicken diners at county Democratic Party fundraisers? Take endless meetings with Democratic politicians and activists about their (often conflicting) priorities and get them all on board with an agenda? Will he have the savvy to make decisions among the hordes of advisors and consultants who will besiege him with recommendations on messaging, communications, GOTV initiatives, etc.?
So many people underestimate how much hard work, talent, experience and luck is required to successfully run for office even at the lowest levels. Maybe he does have the aptitude and dedication for all of the above. But he’ll need to be a remarkably quick study, and Governor of Texas is a pretty high-stakes campaign for on-the-job training.
That’s a valid concern, and given that he doesn’t have political experience he probably wouldn’t do a very good job at those sorts of things. Of course he wouldn’t be running as a Democrat, so those things wouldn’t really be part of his job description to begin with.
IMHO we’ve reached the point where Abbott is causing active harm. Getting him out is the number 1 priority for state government. There’s no way the legislature will flip. Our state Democratic Party is weak, and running a candidate that is guaranteed to lose won’t help anyone. Better to work on rebuilding the state party from the ground up while hoping that someone without the baggage of (D) after their name and who is currently leading in the polls can topple Abbott.
As far as I know he’s made no comments about whether he’d run as an independent or a Democrat (or a Republican, for that matter). If he runs as an independent, though, it will assure Greg Abbott’s reelection just like Kinky Friedman did for Rick Perry back in 2006. Democrats aren’t going to cancel their primary for Governor (I’m not even sure if and how they can), so somebody’s going to be running as a Democrat. They would just split the anti-Abbott vote.