Chris Evans Addresses if He'll Run for Political Office: "Never Say Never"

Captain America star Chris Evans is one of Marvel Studios' more politically outspoken Avengers. He [...]

By Jamie Lovett

Captain America star Chris Evans is one of Marvel Studios' more politically outspoken Avengers. He isn't ruling out turning those opinions into a political career. Evans helped found the "video-based civic-engagement platform" called A Starting Point. That earned him an invite to the Web Summit technology conference. During his virtual panel, the moderator asked Evans if he'd ever considered running for political office. Evans responded graciously, expressing what he'd learned from other elected officials in Washington and the respect he had for those who do that job. "Seems like a lot of work," he said. "I don't know. Hopefully, it doesn't get to the point where I feel the need to. You know, when we were in D.C., we'd always talk to the elected officials. They all said that the good job is mayor. The good job to have in politics was mayor. That seemed to be the universal consensus.

"I don't know. Look, it's tough, too. I think, more than any other profession, people love to armchair politic and just kind of say, 'Well, this is what you should do,' and I'm sure when you get there, this idea of compromise is crushingly real, and that can be tough. So I'm not if I have the stomach for that because I think you become cynical quick, you know what I mean? And I like being idealistic and hopeful. I don't know. I think I'll probably try to find other ways to help."

But then Evans didn't rule the idea out completely, though he admitted he's probably underqualified. "You never say never," he said, "but you know, the truth is -- and this isn't even trying to be fake humble -- I don't know enough. I can't even think of an office that I would disrespect enough to assume I can waltz in and do it, so I'd have to put myself through some sort of class first. But right now, I don't know think I have the tools. "

In August, Evans explained why he decided to launch A Starting Point, referencing his time playing the iconic Captain America. "It's not that I'm specifically drawn to politics. It's just when you look around, you try to figure out how can you help," Evans told People. "There's a lot of things you can do as an actor with your name. I could be making booze — I don't discourage anyone from doing that, I love booze — but there's no denying that I played a certain character, and it just so happens to align with part of my nature in terms of being someone who is politically involved and who cares about the well being of people in this country. You have to use your platform to do more than just retweet things."

Cover photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/FilmMagic via Getty Images

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