Actor Matthew McConaughey made a petition to voters on Sunday, calling upon independents to make elections a “fair fight.”
“They’ve been telling us for years that an independent vote is a wasted vote,” McConaughey said. “Well, a great question for our time is: ‘How’s that unwasted vote been working out for you?’”
McConaughey lives in Texas, where Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton is facing off against opponent James Talarico in a competitive race in the historically red state. The actor, who has appeared in movies such as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Interstellar, and The Wolf of Wall Street, did not endorse either Texas candidate.
“I am here endorsing two things: fairness and reality,” McConaughey said.
Approximately 45% of voters identify as politically independent, according to Gallup, which conducted phone interviews in 2025, sampling more than 13,000 adults, with a margin of error of one percentage point.
McConaughey said independents are the No. 1 political identity nationwide, and yet have been forced to choose between Republicans and Democrats.
“Independent does not mean you’re middle of the road, independent is the original road,” McConaughey said. “Before there was ever a Republican or a Democrat, there was an American. Our birth certificate is not the Declaration of Compromise; it’s the Declaration of Independence.”
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The actor said that with such a narrow majority in Congress, it would take only three to five “true independents” to have an impact, since neither party could pass legislation without independents voting with them. Extreme policies on either side wouldn’t pass, forcing Congress to write more centrist laws, he added.
“Nothing passes without them,” McConaughey said. “Every bill has to come through the middle, which means both parties would finally have to compete for the middle.”