Democrat Taylor Rehmet Snatches Republican Texas Senate Seat
GOP better be paying attention to all races, including at the state level, no matter how big or small.
If the GOP wants to stay in power, it needs to watch what happens at the state level, too, especially in states it controls.
Democratic Texas Senate candidate Taylor Rehmet defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss, who President Donald Trump endorsed, 57.21% to 42.79% in the runoff election for the District 9 seat.
Last night, we made history.
Our people-powered campaign showed what’s possible when we focus on the issues that matter to working families.
Neighbors from across the political spectrum came together to demand a government that works for all Texans. And I'm ready to get to… pic.twitter.com/JVVaCbZ2Ny
— Taylor Rehmet (@TaylorRehmetTX) February 1, 2026
Woof. It wasn’t even close.
Trump won District 9 by 17 percentage points in 2024. It encompasses Tarrant County and parts of Fort Worth and Arlington.
Republican State Sen. Kelly Hancock left the post in June 2025 for a job in the Texas Comptroller’s Office.
According to FOX 4, the Democrats have latched onto the win, thinking it shows a positive future for the party.
Trump seemed to blow it off, unfortunately.
“I don’t know. I didn’t hear about it,” Trump said. “That’s a local Texas race. Things like that happen.”
Even national-level Republicans don’t care:
Republicans mostly waved away Mr. Rehmet’s victory as a fluke in a low-turnout election and played down the Democrats’ new crop of working-class and union candidates.
“They think that they can deceive voters by having all these candidates” who may appear moderate during the campaign, Christian Martinez, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said. “But at the end of the day they’re all pushing the same radical socialist agenda that we’ve seen take hold from New York to California.”
Yeah, um, you should care, especially in districts where Trump dominated in 2024.
Rehmet will hold the seat until November 2026. The Texas senate is weird because it only meets for 140 days in odd years, but could meet for special sessions in 2026.
But hey, go ahead and give the Democrats every opportunity to prove themselves that they’re worthy of any seats.
Nick Arama at RedState had excellent advice for the GOP:
Now, I know, it’s a special election, we shouldn’t flip out. That’s true, Republicans have a tendency not to turn out for special elections. In November, with a Senate seat in play, especially if it’s Rep. Jasmine Crockett (TX-30) who gets the Democratic nod, Republicans will likely turn out in force.
But can we please stop not turning out for special elections already? We need to take every election and not give an inch to these characters. This would have been a cake walk if we had.
The Democrats will continue to lie as they did in Virginia. It’s not a moderate party at all.
The Democrats will chip away so you won’t notice until it’s too late, especially if the GOP shrugs off elections.
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Comments
The plan is to ratchet up the violence and blame the GOP for causing it.
Trump admin had better counter that narrative HARD because it will work on squishy middle voters who just want to be left alone.
Exactly. I worry that the Republicans are starting to believe their own propaganda that “everyone” is in full support of President Trump’s actions.
Remember that 45% of people will vote Democrat out of reflex.
Then there are people who are alarmed simply by how active Trump has been. They’re not used to that and it puts Trump in the headlines every day and in a negative light because of the press.
Next recall how well Kamela Harris did in the last election. You can say that the Republicans have been busy cleaning up fraud but that isn’t something you can eradicate between now and November.
The margin is going to be very tight everywhere and if anyone gets complacent anywhere that election has a strong probability of going to the Democrats.
Keep in mind that not all voters think the fraud is a bad thing, especially when they get their cut. If someone doesn’t work and pay taxes, the extra money coming into the neighborhood is a good thing, for them, especially when someone else is paying for it. Reducing fraud is only important to the half of the electorate that pays taxes.
This brings me back to Virginia about a decade ago, when Democrats were filling up their House of Delegates from counties the GOP had “written off” so hard that they didn’t even bother to run a candidate.
I live in Newport News.I get to vote for the Democrat or write in someone. Who, I have no idea. Very frustrating.
Same!
Oof, Not a good look for the GOP at all.
I live in TX Senate 9 district and consider this a major upset. Rehmet aligns 90% with Jasmine Crockett’s positions. His (incessant) mailers seemed all warm and fuzzy, but his positions on his website are pure leftist dogma. Early voting was hampered by the storm last week, but that’s no excuse. We need a nationwide message on the positive economy now through November.
I, too live in this district. The WSJ has a column today about how this vote was all about immigration enforcement. I disagree. I have several friends that typically vote Republican withhold their votes because the disliked the candidate. This was a runoff election and there were two Republican candidates that split the vote. Don’t let the press confuse or discourage you.
Democrats are motivated by rage. Republicans just want to return to normal life. Rage will win in todays environment because we are no longer Reagan’s America. Dems will stop at nothing while Rs will just stop.
way to go tejas
crookette going to be your senator!!????
wtf
gop >>dont worry
we’re praying
The Texas GOP has several structural problems, but chief among them is the state party’s heavy spending on campaign consultants. Simply put: the GOP nominees in state House and Senate races usually rely heavily on the state GOP for most of their funding. That funding mostly goes to pay campaign consultants the state GOP picks for them that don’t seem to do anything, leaving very little cash for GOTV and advertising. For the state party and campaign consultants, it is a lucrative grift. But it means the GOP loses some races it should win easily.
The most striking example of the GOP’s over-spending on campaign consultants at the expense of smart campaigning was Ted Cruz’s near loss to “Beto” in 2018. Unlike state House and Senate candidates Cruz raised most of his own money (and he raised a LOT of it – almost as much as “Beto”). But he voluntarily followed the suicide pact that state House and Senate candidates are forced to follow, blew most of his money on campaign consultants, and nearly lost. During that race I did not see a single Cruz TV ad, campaign sign, nor even a single yard sign or bumper sticker. By contrast “Beto” seems to be everywhere.
I do not live in this particular district, but I would not be surprised if that was the root cause of the defeat.
just read the “news” in ft worth about this travesty
gop blaming low turnout
or maybe the people see that the gop really isnt doing sh to stop the 3rd world country takeover
and ft worth and dallas news reporters makes cnn look right of center
what happened!!!?!?!?!?!
There were 2 Republicans on the first ballot—Wambsganss and Cook. Wambsganss claimed Cook couldn’t win the general election because he wouldn’t attract a wide range of voters like herself.
So in the runoff, Cook was off the ballot, leaving only Wambsganss, who lost. She failed to consider the potential turnout from Cook’s supporters. By undermining Cook, she not only fractured the base but also turned off Cook’s supporters leading to a lower Republican turnout and thus the Democrat won.
It was Wamsgnass vs John Huffman in the primary, not Cook.
thanks
Republicans keep losing these minor elections. This does not bode well for the fall midterms. I don’t know if Republicans can turn this around on time. President Trump and all the big machers in the GOP better start paying attention.
This isn’t much of a surprise. It’s a special election and had very low turnout in comparison to normal cycle general elections. That allows the candidate/party with better organization/turnout machine punch above their weight. This is a structural advantage for the d/prog across the Nation. It’s also why the public employee unions and their allies fight tooth and nail to try and have municipal elections, school board elections, county commission elections and some judicial elections as either ‘non partisan’ or off cycle usually in Spring and sometimes both. These unions know that those things give them a built in advantage at the polls they wouldn’t hold in partisan elections on a Nov general election ballot scheduled with Congressional, US Senate and Presidential elections.
This District 9 TX Senate race had 95K votes cast. That’s less than the losing candidate got in the ’22 regular cycle election in fact it’s about 15k less. Heck, turnout in ’22 was nearly 278K so this special election turnout was barely over 1/3rd the turnout of a Nov general election.
Yes the average center/right voter needs to pay attention in off cycle elections and be more willing to show up and vote but this result isn’t a surprise and certainly doesn’t represent any sort of doom and gloom scenario foe GoP or MAGA.
Use RICO to permanently abolish the Democrat Crime cabal
Grok and I argue about this. The immigration crimes give rise
Grok ignores plain evidence and stretches sources to producer output aligned with his biases.
He acknowledges these are the result of “who” programs him
X has a large number of enemies of the republic in its plumbing still…
I got Grok to pray to God for more truthful output…
Grok thinks the 2020 election was on the up & up…
He’s an apologist for the PA+19,958+vote+switch on live TV
Ieeep telling yourself that as the Republicans keep losing election after election. In heavy republican districts
The weather was an issue for both sides
Can’t post memes here, but it’s Bigfoot wearing a T-shirt which reads “I am more believable than 81 million votes”
This is not dissent from your point….
On this we agree. Dems keep racking up seats as Republicans rack up excuses. See pretty much all above.
Snatch the seat? No. He won it.
I am a resident of Texas. This seat will be back up for the November 2026 General Elections. There is little likelihood of a session of the Texas Legislature in the next 11 months till the 2027 Session. The Republicans still have an 18 to 12 majority. This election outcome is more symbolic and I believe that the Democrats were pumped up because of recent events elsewhere. I believe Republicans will be more motivated this fall.
Exactly this. They spent more on a symbolic win
But, symbolism does matter, and no one should blow this off. Work every election as if it’s a decisive one and never rest on your laurels.
I try to make all elections. Though my wife is conservative, she almost doesn’t care about the off-cycle, runoff and odd year elections (which here in Texas are votes on what the Legislature had to put before voters of Texas).
It encompasses Tarrant County and parts of Fort Worth and Arlington.
Ummm, if it “encompasses Tarrant County” then it would include all of Ft Worth and Arlington, since they are a large part of what makes up Tarrant County. If it only includes part of those two cities, then it doesn’t “encompass” the county.
just saw this dem on bloomberg
and it was the usual
im a unionist and I want to work for all texans
what bs
some texans want freedom from government
It’s a nothing burger. He wins a very low turnout election to a seat that has no power to do anything since the legislature won’t be in sesssion. Big Deal.
So, the left spent a bucket of money to win a seat for a few months until the actual election that won’t afford them anything since the legislature’s not in session?
And………?