Mel Gibson has emerged as a popular Republican candidate to run for California governor … and while he appreciates that confidence from voters — there’s no way in hell he’s running.

A source close to Mel tells TMZ … he’s “flattered” to have done so well in a recent straw poll among 2,640 respondents, emerging as the top Republican candidate with 12% of the vote — but it ain’t happening.

We’re told Mel has never had any political ambitions — and that isn’t changing now even if voters are digging his criticisms of current Democratic leadership on the state and local level.

As you know, Mel is pretty outspoken when he has a bone to pick, which happened a lot recently when he — along with many other Angelenos — blasted L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Newsom over their response to January’s deadly wildfires. MG was among those who lost their home.

Mel was also super critical of Kamala Harris when she was running against Trump for president … telling TMZ straight up last fall he thinks she has the “IQ of a fence post.”

And hey, it all worked out pretty great for Mel since not only did Trump grab a huge victory over KH … but among his first orders of business was to appoint Mel — along with Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone — as Hollywood’s new Special Ambassador.

Trump said the purpose of creating these positions is to bring business back to Hollywood … which he claims has been lost to foreign countries in the last 4 years.