By JOHN HANNA and JULIE CARR SMYTH<\/p>\n
Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped a reliably Republican state Senate district in Texas in Saturday\u2019s 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
The Republican president immediately distanced himself from the loss in a district he\u2019d won by 17 points in 2024. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not involved in that. That\u2019s a local Texas race,\u201d Trump told reporters Sunday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. <\/p>\n
Yet just a day before the race, Trump had heaped praise on Republican contender Leigh Wambsganss, a conservative activist and entrepreneur, on his social media platform, declaring that she would be \u201ca GREAT Candidate and has my Complete and Total Endorsement.\u201d A longer post came later, in which he urged Texans to get out and vote, describing Wambsganss as a successful entrepreneur and \u201can incredible supporter\u201d of his Make America Great Again movement.<\/p>\n
Despite the plugs, Wambsganss was easily trounced in the Fort Worth-area district by Rehmet, a labor union leader and veteran, for a partial term ending in early January. With almost all votes counted, Rehmet was leading by more than 14 percentage points.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis win goes to everyday working people,\u201d Rehmet told supporters. <\/p>\n
Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called the outcome \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 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\u2019s victory added to the 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\u2019t held in a century<\/a> \u2014 and continuing through to November, when they dominated candidate and ballot contests<\/a> from Maine to California. <\/p>\n And Zohran Mamdani, an unapologetic Democratic Socialist, was elected mayor<\/a> of New York City, a Democratic stronghold that saw the highest voter turnout in a mayor\u2019s race in 50 years. <\/p>\n The showings come as Trump\u2019s approval ratings with the public hold steady<\/a> at around 40%. A January AP-NORC poll<\/a> found that a majority of U.S. adults disapprove of the way he\u2019s handling foreign policy, trade negotiations and immigration, as well as the economy.<\/p>\n Democrats said Saturday\u2019s 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,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cPeople are noticing that Democrats have the workers\u2019 backs and are delivering results.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats\u2019 other state victories since 2025 included wins for governor in Virginia<\/a> and New Jersey<\/a> and in special elections in Kentucky and Iowa. And, while Republican Matt Van Epps<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n With that backdrop in mind, Trump and Vice President JD Vance<\/a> have pushed states to redraw their political maps<\/a> to Republicans\u2019 advantage headed into those contests, which will determine partisan control in Washington. Some Democratic states \u2014 most notably California<\/a> \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 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 called Saturday\u2019s result \u201ca wakeup call for Republicans in Tarrant County, Texas, and the nation\u201d and warned her party not to be complacent.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Democrats were energized,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cToo many Republicans stayed home.\u201d<\/p>\n Rehmet\u2019s victory allows him to serve only until early January. He will face Wambsganss again in the November general election to decide who occupies 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 ___<\/p>\n Will Weissert contributed to this report from Palm Beach, Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By JOHN HANNA and JULIE CARR SMYTH Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped a reliably Republican state Senate district in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,2631,223],"class_list":{"0":"post-147306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-national-news","12":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147306","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=147306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}