{"id":172933,"date":"2026-02-20T14:23:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/172933\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T14:23:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:23:25","slug":"taylor-rehmet-sworn-into-office-after-upset-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/172933\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Rehmet sworn into office after upset victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 State Sen. Taylor Rehmet, D-Fort Worth, was officially sworn into office Thursday after his resounding special election upset victory<\/a> at the end of January.<\/p>\n

Rehmet defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss to serve out the remainder of Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock\u2019s term representing Senate District 9, a solidly Republican district President Donald Trump had previously won by 17% in 2024. The two will face off again in the November 2026 midterms for the chance to serve a full term in the Texas Senate.<\/p>\n

Rehmet\u2019s swearing-in ceremony, held in the Senate chamber of the Texas Capitol, paid special homage to his background as a labor union leader. Leonard Aguilar, president of the Texas American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)\u2014the largest labor union in Texas\u2014served as the master of ceremonies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rehmet was joined by his parents and others from the Fort-Worth area he now represents, including the Bell Systems Show Choir from L.D. Bell High School, who sang both the National Anthem and \u201cDeep in the Heart of Texas.\u201d He began his address to the crowd by stating that he had not arrived, but rather had been sent by teachers, veterans and members of the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who sent us here are not red districts or blue districts,\u201d Rehmet said. \u201cThey are families trying to build a life with dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

He committed to picking solutions over spectacles and vowed to accept the responsibility of using his office to build a better future for Texans.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou did not send me here to be comfortable,\u201d Rehmet said. \u201cYou sent me here to be useful.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, and state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, joined state Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons, D-Houston, in presenting Rehmet with a gavel to signify bicameral collaboration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate and traditionally swears in senators following elections, was absent from the ceremony.<\/p>\n

Following the swearing-in, Rehmet said he was glad for the number of members and friends he had with him to celebrate the special moment, batting aside the question of whether he will ever take a vote in the Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI won twice before; I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a fluke,\u201d he said. \u201cI plan on working just as hard and harder to do it again in November.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 State Sen. Taylor Rehmet, D-Fort Worth, was officially sworn into office Thursday after his resounding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6329,1657,1658,132,134,133,6328,102,55505,223,287,82,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-172933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-app-capital-tonight","9":"tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","10":"tag-app-local-state-politics","11":"tag-austin","12":"tag-austin-headlines","13":"tag-austin-news","14":"tag-capital-tonight","15":"tag-dallas","16":"tag-eleanor-fitzgerald","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-san-antonio","20":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172933","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=172933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}