“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin said Thursday that Texas could turn blue in November for the first time in roughly three decades, as the daytime panel examined the close U.S. Senate contest between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton.
“I really believe Texas will go blue,” Hostin said. She pointed to September polling in which eight pollsters collectively showed Talarico leading Paxton, 51% to 45%—a notable result in a state where Democrats have not won a statewide race in 30 years.
Hostin also highlighted Talarico’s reported advantage among key voting groups. The same polling showed him ahead of Paxton among women, 56% to 40%; voters ages 18 to 29, 66% to 22%; and Hispanic voters, 62% to 30%. “We’re talking about Texas,” she said. “He’s going to win this race.”
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said Talarico’s strength in the traditionally Republican Lone Star State could reflect voter dissatisfaction with President Trump’s administration.
“The fact that Texas is even competitive says a lot about this moment,” Griffin said, arguing that frustration with the nation’s current leadership has put the state in play.
Although Griffin said the contest could still break either way, she noted that neither Paxton nor Talarico could be ruled out. She described the race as a “perfect storm” and said the situation was largely the result of decisions made by the president and his administration.
Griffin also agreed that Texas could eventually flip blue and praised Talarico as a strong candidate. In her view, Republican Sen. John Cornyn might have been a more competitive nominee than Paxton, who secured Trump’s endorsement before winning the GOP primary.
An October Fox News poll found that Talarico held an 8-point positive personal rating among likely Texas voters, with 52% viewing him favorably and 44% unfavorably. Paxton’s numbers were weaker, with 40% favorable and 58% unfavorable ratings—a net negative score of 18 points.
The poll also found that Republicans were six times more likely to hold an unfavorable view of Paxton, at 32%, than Democrats were to view Talarico negatively, at 5%.
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Voters were nearly evenly divided over which party should control the U.S. Senate. Forty-nine percent of likely Texas voters preferred Democratic control, while 50% favored a Republican majority. Among Republicans, 8% said they wanted Democrats in charge, compared with 1% of Democrats who preferred Republican control.
Those numbers gave Talarico a narrow 51%-49% advantage over Paxton among likely voters. The two-point difference, however, fell within the poll’s margin of sampling error.
Other co-hosts, including Whoopi Goldberg and Ana Navarro, urged caution about interpreting the favorable polling for Talarico as a guarantee of victory.
“2016 left me scared,” Navarro said.
Navarro said she remained hopeful but warned that optimism alone would not determine the outcome. She urged voters to turn that hope into action at the ballot box, cautioning that relying too heavily on polls could lead supporters to become complacent when turnout will ultimately decide the race.
Paxton’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Trump appeared alongside Paxton at a campaign event in San Antonio, Texas, on Wednesday.
Trump and Paxton both drew attention to Talarico’s absence from the event. Talarico’s campaign said the Senate hopeful had been ill with the flu and was expected to resume campaigning over the weekend.
RNC spokesman Zach Kraft sharply criticized the two co-hosts’ political commentary. “Anyone taking seriously what Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin say about politics likely has a low enough IQ to qualify as a guest host on ‘The View,’” Kraft said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
