Tarrant County\u2019s 2026 elections are poised to be \u201cthe most important of our lifetime,\u201d local and state Republican officials said Sunday night after historically red Texas Senate District 9 flipped blue in a runoff election many saw as unwinnable for a Democrat.<\/p>\n
The night before, voters elected<\/a> Democrat Taylor Rehmet, 33, to represent the district that includes most of north and west Tarrant County in the high-profile runoff election that drew national attention. Republicans sought to maintain control of the District 9 seat they\u2019ve held since 1991 while observers noted the race could be an indicator of a \u201cblue wave\u201d in Tarrant.<\/p>\n The political upset places a renewed emphasis on the March 3 primary election, which sees a near-record slate<\/a> of Democratic candidates seeking Tarrant County offices.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot afford to lose what is the most important county in the entire country,\u201d Tarrant County Judge Tim O\u2019Hare told the crowd. \u201cAnd last night, we got our butts kicked.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Hare was joined at Mercy Culture Church on Feb. 1 by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton; former state senator Don Huffines, who is currently running for the state comptroller\u2019s office; and other GOP candidates.<\/p>\n The county\u2019s top elected official urged attendees to get civically engaged and to elect conservatives, warning that Rehmet\u2019s win would energize voters and financial supporters seeking to elect Democrats in Tarrant County. The event was organized by Mercy Culture\u2019s political nonprofit For Liberty & Justice and was billed as a \u201cnight of action.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the time to stand up and fight, and this is the time that God calls us to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, and that wall is Tarrant County,\u201d O\u2019Hare said.<\/p>\n Rehmet won with about 57% of the vote, according to unofficial returns from the Tarrant County Elections Office.<\/p>\n Paxton urged those gathered to support candidates like O\u2019Hare in the coming elections to hold the line in the county so Republicans maintain control.<\/p>\n \u201cDo not let Tarrant County fall. Do not let Texas fall. Do not let America fall,\u201d Paxton said. \u201cIt\u2019s really up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Hare attributed Southlake Republican Leigh Wambsganss\u2019 loss to Rehmet in the runoff to \u201ccomplacency\u201d among local Republicans. Wambsganss, an executive with the conservative mobile carrier Patriot Mobile, earned about 2,000 fewer votes Saturday than she did in the three-way election in November when the race included another GOP candidate.<\/p>\n Republicans must mobilize before March, the GOP leaders stressed.<\/p>\n Annie Cellar, president of Texas Christian University\u2019s Turning Point USA chapter, felt \u201cmore on fire than ever to fight for Texas\u201d after the night concluded, she said. She plans to encourage friends and family to vote for conservative candidates in March.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s crucial because it\u2019s our generation that we\u2019re fighting for \u2014 the people that are younger than us, too,\u201d Cellar, 21, said, noting that she was not speaking on behalf of the university\u2019s Turning Point chapter.<\/p>\n Turning Point, which mobilizes college students to become politically active, had a booth during Sunday night\u2019s event.<\/p>\n State Rep. Nate Schatzline, a Mercy Culture Church pastor and founder of its political nonprofit, announced to a crowd of about 100 that he will \u201coversee pastoral relations for all 50 states\u201d on President Donald Trump\u2019s National Faith Advisory Board, which he joined in October. For Liberty & Justice will partner with the board in an effort to mobilize Christian churches across the country to become politically engaged, Schatzline said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need pastors to speak up about issues that matter to them, and so we\u2019re targeting states across America where we feel like we can win purple seats to be red,\u201d Schatzline told the Fort Worth Report.<\/p>\n In November, a Fort Worth Report investigation detailed Campaign University, an online course Schatzline and Mercy Culture leaders developed to train Christian conservatives to seek public office<\/a>.<\/p>\n The nonprofit now is seeking to partner with churches across the country to offer the online course, similar to how the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk\u2019s Turning Point USA works across college campuses.<\/p>\n Schatzline said he expects his appointment to Trump\u2019s advisory board will help empower pastors with resources such as Campaign University to lead their congregations in political engagement.<\/p>\n Among the crowd was Fort Worth resident Mark Christensen, 64, who wore a T-shirt supporting Wambsganss. He said he supported the Southlake Republican\u2019s campaign by block walking to about 500 doors to mobilize voters in between the November election and January runoff.<\/p>\n After the Sunday event ended, he felt inspired to continue rallying Republicans to vote for the candidate in November, when Rehmet and Wambsganss will face off again. Both candidates are running unopposed in the March primaries.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019m gonna do is lean in to the Lord to reenergize, and then be ready to do it again,\u201d Christensen told the Fort Worth Report.<\/p>\n Huffines, who is running for Texas comptroller, called on attendees to take initiative to create a new committee or a new organization.<\/p>\n Christian conservatives must get engaged in local government because \u201cthe evil ones are going to fight to the death for the state of Texas,\u201d Huffines said, referencing \u201cprogressives\u201d and \u201cleftists.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re fighting for Tarrant County, you\u2019re fighting for Texas,\u201d Huffines said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re fighting for Texas, you\u2019re fighting for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tarrant County\u2019s 2026 elections are poised to be \u201cthe most important of our lifetime,\u201d local and state Republican…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-147762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-fort-worth","9":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","10":"tag-fort-worth-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147762","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=147762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}