O’Rourke edges closer to governor run, still wants your AK-47, wonders what McConaughey stands for

WASHINGTON – Beto O’Rourke, edging closer to challenging Gov. Greg Abbott, on Friday defended his vow to confiscate assault-style guns during the 2020 presidential race, warning that the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol showed the danger of letting Trump-loving white supremacists own “weapons of war.”

“We are allowing political terrorists to arm themselves to the teeth,” he said.

O’Rourke’s aggressive stance on gun control would prove a huge vulnerability in a general election, and the former El Paso congressman might have to first get past movie star Matthew McConaughey, who is also pondering a run but hasn’t said if he’d run as a Democrat or Republican.

In a far-ranging interview during the Texas Tribune Festival, O’Rourke issued a familiar indictment of Abbott over the COVID-19 pandemic, winter power blackout and other crises. And he offered a taste of what a primary might look like against McConaughey, who for now is polling far better against the governor.

“He’s a good guy, he’s done some good work in the state. And he’s a great actor…. I’m a fan of his, and I’ve been so impressed by how he’s used his celebrity and star power to help others,” O’Rourke said before throwing some shade: “He’s a really popular figure whose political views have not in any way been fixed. I don’t know, for example, who he voted for in the most consequential election since 1864 in this country” – that is, the 2020 presidential election.

“I don’t know how he feels about any of the issues,” he said.

“It’s something I’m thinking about and you know, no secret about that,” O’Rourke said Friday.

McConaughey leads the governor 44-35 in the latest News poll. Much of that support comes from independents dismayed over Abbott’s hard right turn, including a strict abortion ban and his refusal to allow mayors and county judges to issue local mask mandates.

Both are University of Texas graduates with homes in Austin, though only one has won an Oscar for best actor in a leading role – the 2014 Academy Award for Dallas Buyers Club.

McConaughey said in March that he was giving “serious consideration” to a run for Texas governor, and the tease continued this week on an installment of Set It Straight: Myths and Legends posted online on Wednesday.

“I’m measuring it,” McConaughey said on the podcast after the host urged him spread his positivity and “please, do something in public office.”

“Do you think public office is the category where I could most be useful?” McConaughey replied, sharing an internal monologue as he weighs a run. “I’m more of a folk singing, philosopher, poet-statesman than I am a per se definitive politician… So I go, ‘Well that’s a reason not to,’ but then I go, ‘Oh, well that’s exactly why you should. Because politics needs redefinition.’ ”

As for O’Rourke, although he remains popular among Democratic activists, he’s also deeply polarizing. Far more Texas voters (43%) view him unfavorably than with favor (34%).

That’s a deep hole, and a huge comedown from 2018, when he held Sen. Ted Cruz below 51% and came closer to winning statewide than any Democrat since 1994.

Still, O’Rourke is closing in on Abbott.

The News/UT-Tyler poll two months earlier showed him trailing the governor by 12 points – though polling numbers can change dramatically once a hypothetical candidate formally jumps into a race.

Nearly two thirds of independents say the state is headed in the wrong direction, a view shared by 54% of voters overall.

That has dragged Abbott’s approval rating to a low 45% – perilously low for an incumbent but still quite a bit higher than O’Rourke’s.

Many Texas Democrats are urging O’Rourke to challenge Abbott and until he makes a decision, the primary field is frozen.

“I’m listening to people. That’s part of how I think through something – I listen to people,” he said. “I’m on the phones. I’m going out to meet with people. I’m trying to understand where they are, what will do the greatest good, and then trying to take action based on what I hear.”

O’Rourke insisted he’s not being “coy” about whether he’ll run, he’s just still considering his options. But he didn’t hold back in lacerating the governor’s record, citing “the deep damage and chaos, the incompetence that is connected to Greg Abbott from the winter freeze, the abortion ban, the permitless carry, the anti-mask mandate, the terrible toll that COVID has taken on the state.”

The interviewer, Kara Swisher, a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times, asked whether O’Rourke was surprised that The News’ poll and others show McConaughey faring better against Abbott.

No, said O’Rourke, who heaped praise on his potential rival as a “good guy” and a “great actor” who nonetheless hasn’t explained his positions on key issues or vision for the state.

He recalled that McConaughey and his wife came to El Paso after the August 2019 rampage “to try to help and raise resources to make sure that families were okay.”

“During the winter freeze,” he added, McConaughey “rounded up all the other stars and celebrities he knew and put on a great show and raised a bunch of money for people who were really struggling. I don’t know what he is going to do next.”

On gun control, most Democrats in the 2020 primaries distanced themselves from O’Rourke’s declaration that “hell yes” he would confiscate AR-15s, AK-47s and similar weapons. The comment came in a televised debate shortly after the El Paso massacre.

Texas, he said Friday, has had “four of the deadliest mass shootings in American history,” including the one in El Paso when “23 people were slaughtered by a gunman inspired by Donald Trump and the white supremacist ideology that he represented, who used a weapon of war, an AK-47, to kill all of those people and grievously injured dozens more in a matter of minutes.”

He noted that on Thursday, FBI director Christopher Wray warned Congress of a dramatic increase in domestic white supremacist terrorism.

“Remember,” O’Rourke added, “the El Paso gunman in the manifesto he published minutes before walking into that Walmart said that he came to stop the Hispanic political takeover of Texas. This was political terrorism. January 6 was political terrorism, and we are allowing political terrorists to arm themselves to the teeth.”