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FILE – The State Capitol is seen in Austin, Texas, on June 1, 2021.<\/p>\n
Eric Gay\/AP<\/p>\n
Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped a reliably Republican state Senate district in Texas in Saturday’s special election, continuing a string of surprise victories for Democrats across the U.S. in the year since Donald Trump returned to the White House.<\/p>\n
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The Republican president immediately distanced himself from the loss. It’s a district he had won by 17 points in 2024.<\/p>\n
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At Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, Trump told reporters, \u201cI\u2019m not involved in that. That\u2019s a local Texas race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just a day earlier, however, he had used his social media platform to urge voters to support the Republican candidate, conservative activist Leigh Wambsganns. He called her a successful entrepreneur and \u201can incredible supporter\u201d of his Make America Great Again movement.<\/p>\n
Rehmet, a labor union leader and veteran, defeated Wambsganss easily in the Fort Worth-area district. With almost all votes counted, Rehmet was leading by more than 14 percentage points \u2014 a more than 30-point difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis win goes to everyday working people,\u201d Rehmet told supporters.<\/p>\n
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Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called it \u201ca wake-up call for Republicans across Texas,\u201d where the GOP controls every statewide office.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur voters cannot take anything for granted,\u201d Patrick wrote on the social platform X, while noting low-turnout special elections are always unpredictable. \u201cI know the energy and strength the Republican grassroots in Texas possess. We will come out fighting with a new resolve, and we will take this seat back in November.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rehmet’s victory added to Democrats\u2019 record of overperforming in special elections so far this cycle, beginning in March \u2014 when they prevailed in a Pennsylvania legislative district made up of suburbanites and farmers that Democrats hadn’t held in a century \u2014 and continuing through to November, when they dominated candidate and ballot contests from Maine to California.<\/p>\n
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 mayor’s race in 50 years.<\/p>\n
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The showings come as Trump\u2019s approval ratings with the public hold steady at around 40%. A January AP-NORC poll found that a majority of U.S. adults disapprove of the way he’s handling foreign policy, trade negotiations and immigration, as well as the economy.<\/p>\n
Democrats said Saturday’s results in Texas were further evidence that voters under the second Trump administration are motivated to reject GOP candidates and their policies.<\/p>\n
Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder said Rehmet won by standing with working people and talking to Texans about the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis win shows what is possible in Texas with strong organizing, great candidates and strategic investments,” he said in a statement. \u201cPeople are noticing that Democrats have the workers\u2019 backs and are delivering results.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Democrats’ other state victories since 2025 included wins for governor in Virginia and New Jersey and in special elections in Kentucky and Iowa. And, while Republican Matt Van Epps won a Tennessee special election for a U.S. House seat, the relatively slim margin of victory gave Democrats hope for this fall\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n
With that backdrop in mind, Trump and Vice President JD Vance have pushed states to redraw their political maps to Republicans’ advantage headed into those contests, which will determine partisan control in Washington. Some Democratic states \u2014 most notably California \u2014 have pushed back with their own redistricting efforts.<\/p>\n
The Texas Senate seat was open because the four-term GOP incumbent, Kelly Hancock, resigned to take a statewide office. Hancock easily won election each time he ran for the office, and Republicans have held the seat for decades.<\/p>\n
The district is redder than its home, Tarrant County. Trump won the county by 5 points in 2024, but Democratic President Joe Biden carried it in 2020 by about 1,800 votes out of more than 834,000 cast.<\/p>\n
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But Rehmet had support from 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 lowering costs, supporting public education and protecting jobs.<\/p>\n
Wambsganss warned her party not to be complacent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Democrats were energized,” she said in a statement. “Too many Republicans stayed home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rehmet\u2019s victory allows him to serve only until early January, and he will face Wambganss again in the November general election to keep the seat for a full four-year term. The Texas Legislature is not set to reconvene until 2027, and the GOP still will have a comfortable majority.<\/p>\n
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Will Weissert contributed to this report from Palm Beach, Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – The State Capitol is seen in Austin, Texas, on June 1, 2021. Eric Gay\/AP Democrat Taylor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,1864,145,147,24423,5621,11571,61118,23681,59373,59370,59371,59372,61260,61261,61262,11572,27,61259,11259],"class_list":["post-146701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-dan-patrick","tag-donald-trump","tag-jd-vance","tag-joe-biden","tag-kelly-hancock","tag-leigh-wambsganss","tag-matt-van-epps","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30109-ap-texas-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-product-32510-ap-online-general-election-news","tag-product-32520-ap-online-other-u-s-government-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-taylor-rehmet","tag-texas","tag-texas-state-senate-democrat-taylor-rehmet","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}