Democrat Taylor Rehmet flips Fort Worth state Senate seat in upset

Taylor Rehmet, a union president and Air Force veteran, captured a startling victory in a Texas special election runoff, flipping State Senate District 9 in the Fort Worth area and handing Democrats a high-profile win in a district President Donald Trump carried by 17 points in 2024. With 100 percent of precincts reported, Rehmet received 54,267 votes, about 57 percent, while Republican Leigh Wambsganss tallied 40,598 votes, roughly 43 percent.

The pick-up came in a district long held by Republicans and opened last year when four-term GOP senator Kelly Hancock resigned to take a statewide office. Rehmet fell short of an outright majority in a three-way November special election, when he won 46 percent and forced the Feb. 1 runoff. That narrow miss set the stage for the head-to-head contest that culminated Saturday in a comfortable margin for the Democrat.

Rehmet’s coalition blended traditional labor support with national Democratic organizing. The Democratic National Committee invested in the race and progressive veterans group VoteVets said it spent $500,000 on ads to bolster Rehmet’s candidacy. The campaign framed the result as a win for working families; after the victory Rehmet said, "This win goes to everyday working people."

Wambsganss, a longtime conservative activist who received late backing from statewide Republican leaders and a social media push from former President Trump, mounted a well-funded challenge. Trump posted on his social media platform urging voters to support Wambsganss, calling her a "successful entrepreneur" and "an incredible supporter" of his Make America Great Again movement. State GOP figures, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, mounted a last-minute funding effort on her behalf, and some observers noted she held a significant spending advantage in the closing days.

National Democrats framed the result as part of broader momentum in special elections, arguing it undercuts the notion of safe Republican turf in the Sun Belt. DNC Chair Ken Martin described the outcome as "a warning sign to Republicans across the country" and said the victory showed pain from GOP policy for working families nationwide. For Democrats looking to build maps and narratives heading into November, the precinct-level shifts in suburban Tarrant County — often cast as one of the nation's most reliably Republican population centers — will be studied closely.

Despite the symbolic weight of the flip, practical legislative consequences are limited in the near term. The Texas Senate remains under Republican control and the legislature is not scheduled to reconvene until 2027. Rehmet will serve only through the end of the current term in early January and must run again in November for a full four-year term. Both campaigns, by many accounts, will now pivot to a longer and more expensive general election battle as national groups evaluate how this upset reshapes their fall spending and messaging.

The result underscores how local dynamics — union organizing, veteran outreach, and targeted ad spending — can reshape even districts that appeared securely aligned with a single party, offering a cautionary tale for both national parties as they prepare for the next round of contests.