STUNNING GOP: Democrat flips reliably Republican Texas State Senate seat

Democrat Taylor Rehmet defeated a reliably Republican state Senate district in Texas in Saturday’s special election, continuing a string of surprise victories for Democrats across the United States in the year since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

The Republican president immediately distanced himself from the loss. It is a district that had won by 17 points in 2024.

On Sunday at Mar-a-Lago, Trump told reporters: “I’m not involved in that. It’s a local Texas race.”

However, just a day earlier he had used his social media platform to urge voters to support the Republican candidate, conservative activist Leigh Wambsganns. He called her a successful businesswoman and “an incredible supporter” of his Make America Great Again movement.

Rehmet, a union leader and veteran, easily defeated Wambsganss in the Fort Worth-area district. With almost all the votes counted, Rehmet was leading by more than 14 percentage points, a difference of more than 30 points.

“This victory is for ordinary workers,” Rehmet told his supporters.

Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called it “a wake-up call for Republicans across Texas,” where the GOP controls all state offices.

“Our voters cannot take anything for granted,” Patrick wrote on the social platform X, noting that special elections with low turnout are always unpredictable. “I know the energy and strength of the Republican base in Texas. We will fight with new determination and win back this seat in November.”

Rehmet’s victory added to Democrats’ record of outperforming in special elections so far this cycle, beginning in March (when they prevailed in a Pennsylvania legislative district made up of suburbanites and farmers that Democrats hadn’t held in a century) and continuing through November, when they dominated candidate and ballot races from Maine to California.

And Zohran Mamdani, an unapologetic democratic socialist, was elected mayor of New York City, a Democratic stronghold that saw the highest voter turnout in a mayoral race in 50 years.

The results come as Trump’s approval ratings among the public remain stable at around 40%. An AP-NORC poll in January found that a majority of American adults disapprove of the way he handles foreign policy, trade negotiations and immigration, as well as the economy.

via News

Democrats said Saturday’s results in Texas were further evidence that voters under the second Trump administration are motivated to reject Republican candidates and their policies.

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder said Rehmet won by supporting workers and talking to Texans about the future.

“This victory shows what is possible in Texas with a strong organization, great candidates and strategic investments,” he said in a statement. “People are noticing that Democrats are backing workers and getting results.”

Democrats’ other state victories since 2025 included gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey and in special elections in Kentucky and Iowa. And while Republican Matt Van Epps won a special election in Tennessee for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, the relatively narrow margin of victory gave Democrats hope for this fall’s midterm elections.

With that backdrop in mind, Trump and Vice President JD Vance have pressured states to redraw their political maps to benefit Republicans ahead of those races, which will determine partisan control in Washington. Some Democratic states – most notably California – have rejected their own redistricting efforts.

The Texas Senate seat became vacant because four-term GOP incumbent Kelly Hancock resigned to take state office. Hancock has easily won elections every time he has run for office, and Republicans have held the seat for decades.

The district is redder than its home, Tarrant County. Trump won the county by 5 points in 2024, but Democratic President Joe Biden won it in 2020 by about 1,800 votes out of more than 834,000 cast.

But Rehmet had the support of national organizations, including the DNC and VoteVets, a veterans group that said it spent $500,000 on ads. Rehmet, who served in the Air Force and works as a machinist, focused on reducing costs, supporting public education and protecting jobs.

Wambsganss warned his party not to be complacent.

“Democrats were full of energy,” he said in a statement. “Too many Republicans stayed home.”

Rehmet’s victory allows him to serve only until early January, and he will face Wambganss again in November’s general election to retain the seat for a full four-year term. The Texas Legislature won’t reconvene until 2027, and the GOP will still have a comfortable majority.

___

Will Weissert contributed to this report from Palm Beach, Florida.