Matthew McConaughey Offers Up Weird July 4 Speech

Stump speech via social media? Matthew McConaughey celebrated Independence Day by posting a video to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram on July 4 wishing America a happy 245th birthday—and a lot more. The native Texan talked about the "growing pains" the US is going through, noting that in terms of age when compared to other countries, the nation is still young. "We're basically going through puberty," he said, per EW. Perhaps that's why this past year, as he called it, was such a "head-scratcher." While McConaughey did not explicitly address next year's Texas gubernatorial race, he delivered the speech in front of an American flag, leading some outlets, like Today, to speculate that he will in fact run for governor.

Despite the nation's growing pains, he continued, "we got to keep learning, we got to keep maturing, we gotta keep striving, we gotta keep climbing, we gotta keep building. And we gotta make sure we maintain hope along the way, as we continue to evolve. Why? 'Cause it's who we are. Why? Because the alternative sucks." The 2.5-minute-long message also included an analogy about "a song we can't not sing," and a suggestion that anyone who doesn't feel that we're all in this together "move on. Go somewhere else." If McConaughey does run, the latest polling has him neck and neck with current Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the Hill reports. Abbott currently has a slight lead. (More Matthew McConaughey stories.)