\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTaylor Rehmet was sworn in Feb. 19 as Texas\u2019 newest state senator, becoming the first Democrat to represent State Senate District 9 in decades.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s happening<\/p>\n
Rehmet, an Air Force veteran and union leader, will serve an 11-month term in the state Senate. He fills a seat vacated by former Republican Sen. Kelly Hancock, who resigned from the Legislature last summer to lead the state comptroller\u2019s office<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rehmet won the north Tarrant County seat<\/a> by 14 percentage points during a Jan. 31 special runoff election, flipping a district he said had been held by Republicans since 1983. President Donald Trump won the district by 17 percentage points in 2024, state election records show<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI rise today not as someone who has arrived, but as someone who has been sent,\u201d Rehmet said on the Senate floor after taking the oath of office. \u201cYou did not send me here to be comfortable\u2014you sent me here to be useful.\u201d<\/p>\n The Legislature is not currently in session, meaning Rehmet is unlikely to cast a vote on legislation over the next 11 months. Senators are expected to hold information-gathering hearings in the coming months as they set their priorities for the 2027 legislative session, although Rehmet told reporters Feb. 19 he did not know if or when he would be assigned to legislative committees.<\/p>\n \u201cMy role as senator is the same as when I was campaigning,\u201d Rehmet told Community Impact after he was sworn in. \u201cI have to go and talk to the voters\u2014now constituents\u2014and help them with their issues, listen and build a plan and agenda for whenever I win in November.\u201d<\/p>\n Senate District 9<\/a> covers about half of Fort Worth and several suburban communities in northern Tarrant County, including Keller and Southlake.<\/p>\n The details<\/p>\n Rehmet was sworn in Feb. 19 by former state district Judge Susan Criss. The ceremony, held on the Senate floor at the Texas Capitol in Austin, was attended by Rehmet\u2019s friends, family, dozens of Texas Democrats and members of various state unions.<\/p>\n \u201c[Rehmet] isn’t a career politician: he’s a leader who listens,\u201d Texas AFL-CIO President Leonard Aguilar said. \u201cHe’s a leader who shows up and gets things done, and today he makes history as the first-ever rank-and-file union member to serve in the Texas Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Texas Senate, was not present at the Feb. 19 ceremony. Rehmet said he had spoken \u201cbriefly\u201d with Patrick, noting that the lieutenant governor congratulated him on his win.<\/p>\n Patrick previously endorsed Rehmet\u2019s special election opponent, Republican Leigh Wambsganss, who is an executive for the conservative cell service provider Patriot Mobile. In the Jan. 31 runoff election, Rehmet beat Republican Leigh Wambsganss by 14 percentage points, Community Impact reported<\/a>. Republicans received 51.9% of the votes during a three-way race in November, with Rehmet and Wambsganss advancing to the runoff after votes were split between two Republican candidates.<\/p>\n In the January rematch, Rehmet secured nearly 10 more percentage points than he did in November.<\/p>\n \u201cThe results from SD 9 are a wake-up call for Republicans across Texas,\u201d Patrick said in a post on X<\/a> following Rehmet\u2019s Jan. 31 victory. \u201cOur voters cannot take anything for granted. … We will come out fighting with a new resolve, and we will take this seat back in November.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking ahead<\/p>\n Rehmet will serve until January 2027 when the next state legislative session begins.<\/p>\n He is running unopposed for Senate District 9 in the March 3 Democratic primary, while Wambsganss is running unopposed in the Republican primary. The two candidates will face off again in the November midterm election, and the winner of that race will serve a full term in Texas\u2019 90th Legislature.<\/p>\n Early in-person voting<\/a> in Texas\u2019 primary elections begins Feb. 17 and lasts until Feb. 27, with primary election day on March 3. For more details about the contested races on local ballots and over 100 Q&As with candidates, visit communityimpact.com\/voter-guide<\/a>.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylor Rehmet was sworn in Feb. 19 as Texas\u2019 newest state senator, becoming the first Democrat to represent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2137,34448,150,152,151,1864,69611,11571,52985,69612,69609,69610,69613,11572,42073,5600,293,11567,13602],"class_list":{"0":"post-172137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-2026-elections","9":"tag-2027-legislative-session","10":"tag-arlington","11":"tag-arlington-headlines","12":"tag-arlington-news","13":"tag-dan-patrick","14":"tag-democrats-flip-texas-senate-seat","15":"tag-leigh-wambsganss","16":"tag-march-primaries","17":"tag-north-tarrant-county","18":"tag-sd-9","19":"tag-special-election-runoff","20":"tag-tarrant-county-voters","21":"tag-taylor-rehmet","22":"tag-texas-afl-cio","23":"tag-texas-democrats","24":"tag-texas-legislature","25":"tag-texas-senate-district-9","26":"tag-texas-senate-race"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172137","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=172137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}