Good news from Texas
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Democrat and machinist union leader Taylor Rehmet won the special election Saturday to represent a solidly red Texas Senate district that President Donald Trump carried by 17 points in 2024, a stunning upset that injected a fresh and urgent sense of a panic into the GOP from the Texas Capitol to the White House heading into November’s midterm elections.
The loss was a major setback for Wambsganss, a conservative activist whose advocacy in recent years helped make Tarrant County — nearly half of which is covered by Senate District 9 — a testing ground for socially conservative policies. Long active in GOP circles, Wambsganss rose to prominence in 2022 when she helped the GOP fill North Texas school boards with candidates who held Christian conservative views. The movement’s success resulted in an explosion across the country of book bans, rewriting of curricula and a thinner line separating church and state.
In a statement, Wambsganss said the outcome was a “wakeup call” for Republicans, but she insisted things would shake out differently in November, when she and Rehmet will face off again for a full four-year term representing the district.
“The dynamics of a special election are fundamentally different from a November general election,” Wambsganss said. “I believe the voters of Senate District 9 and Tarrant County Republicans will answer the call in November.”tps://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/30/texas-senate-district-9-runoff-rehmet-wambsganss-special-election/
Rehmet was far outspent in the leadup to the November election, spending $68,000 compared to millions spent by the two GOP candidates. He remained financially outgunned heading into Saturday, with Wambsganss reporting a whopping $736,000 in expenditures compared to Rehmet’s roughly $70,000, according to campaign finance filings with the state.
Outsiders have also been spending on the race. VoteVets, a progressive national veterans PAC, poured in roughly $500,000 to boost Rehmet. Patrick, the upper chamber’s presiding officer, contributed $300,000 to Wambsganss’ campaign through his PAC, Texas Senate Leadership Fund.
Rehmet entered Saturday with no cash on hand while Wambsganss had $310,000.
“We have an opportunity to really show that if you have a good message and you stick to voters and what they want, listen, that you can win an election as an underdog, that you can overcome millions and millions spent against you,” Rehmet said in an interview Friday. “As long as you’re doing the right thing, you can get elected.”
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Certainly is good news, but ...
People are getting way out ahead in extrapolating. The turnout in this special election was 90K. The turnout in the last general election was over 3 times that number. Who are the people who didn't turn out, but who might in November when these two refight the same battle? It's probably a group that wasn't as passionate to turn out yesterday.
