Talarico cheers on Matthew McConaughey: ‘I think he’d be a great candidate’

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico backed actor Matthew McConaughey getting involved in electoral politics.

“If Matthew McConaughey feels strongly about it, he should step up and run,” Talarico told TMZ DC in a clip posted to the social platform X on Wednesday.

“I think he’d be a great candidate,” the Texas Democrat added.

Talarico’s comments follow McConaughey sharing a message before the midterms, claiming that casting a ballot for independent candidates could bring lawmakers “back to the middle, where most American values live.”

In a video posted to X over the weekend, McConaughey said, “This is about the upcoming ballot, and I am not here today to endorse a candidate or a party.”

“I am here endorsing two things: fairness and reality,” the actor added. “I believe in a fair fight, and a fair fight is not just two fighters throwing the same punches at each other for 50 years. A fair fight is when the fighters who ought to be represented in the fight are actually in the fight.”

“The No. 1 political identity in America today is not Republican. It is not Democrat. It is independent,” McConaughey said.

According to a Gallup poll from 2025, 45 percent of American adults identified as independents, with 27 percent identifying as Republicans and another 27 percent identifying as Democrats.

“So independents belong in the fight — not as a protest, not as a spoiler — but as a real and potential winner, on the ballot and considered seriously by us,” McConaughey said.

When asked by TMZ why he is making his bid for the Senate “as a Democrat,” Talarico responded that, “because of this two-party system, it’s near impossible to be able to get elected as an independent candidate.”