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“I wouldn’t bet on it, but I would not count it out, and I would not underestimate her either,” Fox News political analyst Guy Benson said
Graig Graziosi in Washington, D.C. Thursday 18 December 2025 22:37 GMT- Bookmark
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Even Fox News personalities are now admitting that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could win the 2028 U.S. presidential election.
Fox Business host Stuart Varney was discussing the New York Representative and said that he couldn't "see her winning the presidency," before asking Fox News' political analyst Guy Benson if he thought she could achieve the Oval Office.
"Yes," Benson replied during the Thursday broadcast.
Varney was shocked by his response and asked him to clarify.
“I would not bet on it, but I think it’s absolutely possible. So let’s just talk about this,” Benson said, prompting Varney to ask him to explain his reasoning.
Benson said he believed that, should Ocasio-Cortez run for president, "she would have at least a decent fighter’s chance to win the nomination."
Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez addresses supporters during a "Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here" rally in Denver, Colorado, on March 21 2025. Fox News political analyst Guy Benson said that he believed Ocasio-Cortez could win a 2028 presidential election under the right conditions (Jason Connolly/AFP/Getty)"I don’t think she’d be the front-runner. I’m not sure she’d win it, but I think that there’s a real possibility that she could,” he added.
The discussion took place after a poll found Ocasio-Cortez polling higher than Vice President JD Vance in a hypothetical 2028 presidential face-off.
A poll from The Argument magazine and Verasight found that Ocasio-Cortez would beat the vice president 51 percent to 49 percent.
Ocasio-Cortez later quote-tweeted the post on X, only adding the word “Bloop!”
When The Independent asked her about why she posted about the poll, Ocasio-Cortez offered a simple response as she walked to the House floor.
“Because JD Vance is a goober, man,” she said.
The congresswoman has not said that she plans to run in 2028, though she would be qualified to do so.
Benson elaborated on his position, saying AOC had a chance because U.S. presidential elections always come down to two candidates. And if Ocasio-Cortez secures the nomination, there is a chance she would win, even if some centrist Democrats and middle-ground independents didn't share her leftist values.
"I'm not sure there’s such a thing as unelectable anymore in America. In a normal election cycle, I don’t think she could win. But under a circumstance where the public is fed up with the Republicans or the incumbents and she’s representing major change, I absolutely could see her winning," Benson said. "Again, I wouldn’t bet on it, but I would not count it out, and I would not underestimate her either."
Varney, still shocked at Benson's answer, asked him if he believed the country had gone far enough left that Ocasio-Cortez could actually win the presidency.
“No, but I think that we are just swinging wildly back and forth,” Benson replied. "I think a lot of people on the left—think about this—they would have said a few years ago, 'There’s no way Donald Trump could win again.' They thought the same thing the first time. It’s true. 'There’s no way he could win again.' And then he did, pretty handily."
He said he believes that when the public feels as though they've been abandoned by their leaders, they will seek agents of change in elections.
"I think that absent leadership can bring people together and satisfy people — and I think today’s report on inflation is very good, right, for Trump and the Republicans in the near term — but... envision in 2028 an economy that people are frustrated with, and young people casting a ballot for something new and different, and those demographics that shifted a little bit to Trump going back," he said. "There’s a path to victory for anyone with a D next to their name."
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