James Talarico Was Just Asked If He's The One To 'Turn Texas Blue'—And His Answer Is A Masterclass

Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico had people cheering with his response to a supporter who asked if he is going to be "the one to turn Texas blue."

Ahead of the early voting deadline in Texas, news outlets reported the findings of the latest poll by Quantus Insights showing that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Talarico's GOP opponent for the U.S. Senate, holds a razor thin lead over Talarico. 48.7% of respondents backed Paxton, while 47.6% backed Talarico. Other polls show Talarico ahead.

This means that the race in Texas has never been more competitive—and Talarico gave an answer that acknowledged the high stakes as Democrats push forward with their efforts to flip the state in the final days of the midterm election campaign.

Talarico said:

"I'm not interested in turning Texas blue. I wanna win this seat so that I can fight for all 31 million Texans—whether they're Democrats, independents, or Republicans."

"My party talks about turning Texas blue a lot. Republicans talk about keeping Texas red. I've said before I think the best color for Texas is purple. I think she would look great in purple."

"Because when you have a purple state, when you have competitive elections, it forces every politician in both parties at all levels to stay on their toes. And we've seen this before when we saw Democrats flip state House districts in 2018. I was one of the twelve that flipped. Suddenly, in 2019, you saw the Republican leadership focusing on real issues."

"We were able to come together as Democrats and Republicans to pass historic school finance reform, historic property tax relief. We weren't chasing crazy culture wars, we weren't grandstanding on issues. We were actually solving problems. And so I've seen this work: when you have competitive election results, you get better public policy on the backend."

"And my hope in this race is that we can finally end 30 years of one-party rule and get some competitive elections back in Texas so that all politicians are staying on their toes and trying to represent all 31 million Texans."

You can hear what Talarico said in the video below.

Talarico's answer went viral after it was shared by his campaign and received an overwhelmingly positive reaction.

We're counting on you, Texas.