Katie McKellar, Utah News Dispatch

Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey, who has made past headlines for toying with the idea of running for public office, whether it be for Texas’ governor or a presidential bid, again wouldn’t give a definitive answer Friday — but he left the door open.

“Yes, I’ve thought about running (for public office),” the actor said in response to the question posed by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, at the National Governors Association Summer Meeting in Salt Lake City. “I’m on a learning tour and have been, probably, for the last six years.”

McConaughey said he’s been mulling the move as he asks himself if he has “what it takes. Do I have the instincts and the intellect that it would be a good fit for me, and I would be a good fit for it?” ...

Utah’s still undecided Republican primary for the 2nd Congressional District got its first test in court Monday — but that doesn’t mean the race is any closer to being resolved.

There’s another fight brewing — this time over potentially hundreds of ballots in southern Utah that weren’t postmarked on time, the day before Election Day, due to delays through the postal service because they’re routed to Las Vegas for processing before returning to clerks.

At issue in court Monday, however, was a conflict between 2nd Congressional District candidate Colby Jenkins and Washington County over whether the clerk there had the right to decline to release the county’s list of “uncured” ballots, which contains the names of voters whose signatures need to be confirmed before their votes can be counted. ...

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox opened his TED talk, which he delivered from Canada on Wednesday, with a quote from former President Ronald Reagan: “Freedom is a fragile thing, and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.”

Cox said he, like many others, has used that quote many times — but he confessed he didn’t actually believe it. That is, until the “first cracks in my confidence came” when he was Utah’s lieutenant governor, and that was when he showed up to what was supposed to be a routine meeting to certify the votes of electors for a presidential election.