Matthew McConaughey Makes His Call on Governor Run

Looks like it's back to Hollywood and/or family life for Matthew McConaughey. The 52-year-old actor has made headlines of late—and polled pretty well doing so—by publicly mulling whether he should make a run for governor in his home state of Texas. Over the weekend, however, he announced that mulling period has ended. "As a simple kid born in the little town of Uvalde, Texas, it never occurred to me that I would one day be considered for political leadership," he said in a three-minute video he posted Sunday on Twitter. "It's a humbling and inspiring path to ponder. It is also a path that I'm choosing not to take at this moment."

Still, McConaughey has a warning for his fellow Texans, and for Americans in general. "Been listening, been learning, been measuring, been studying Texas politics and American politics," he notes—and what he's learned is that "we have some problems we need to fix." He added, "Our politics needs new purpose. ... We have divides that need healing." CNN notes that McConaughey would've been a "wild card" in the race against GOP incumbent Greg Abbott, especially since former US Rep. Beto O'Rourke officially threw his hat into the ring as a Democratic contender earlier this month.

McConaughey's decision comes down just days after a wide-ranging New York Times interview in which he noted he wouldn't have had the confidence five years ago to even consider a gubernatorial run. "Do my gifts fit into being effective as a politician?" he said to the paper's David Marchese. "Good question. Because I'm not historically a politico. I'm a folk-singing philosopher-poet who has a gift for storytelling, inspiration."

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So what is McConaughey going to do now that he's not headed for the governor's mansion? "I'm going to continue to work and invest the bounty I have by supporting entrepreneurs, businesses, and foundations that I believe are leaders," he said in his video, adding that the ultimate goal is the "American dream" of prosperity. "Politicians? The good ones can help us get to where we need to go, yeah. But let's be clear: They can't do anything for us, unless we choose to do for ourselves." (More Matthew McConaughey stories.)