![\"Democrat](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762557669_173_Taylor-Rehmet-01-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tOverview:<\/p>\n
Taylor Rehmet, a Democrat, led in the special election to succeed Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock in a red-leaning North Texas Senate seat, coming within three percentage points of a stunning outright win. Because nobody won a majority of the votes, Rehmet and conservative activist Leigh Wambsganss will face off in a runoff election, likely in January. Despite coming out of Tuesday on top, Rehmet remains an underdog in the overtime contest, with his nearly 48% support in the first round outweighed by the combined GOP vote for his opponents.<\/p>\n
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For months, the special election to succeed Acting Comptroller\u00a0Kelly Hancock<\/a>\u00a0in a red-leaning North Texas Senate seat revolved around the two Republicans in the race.<\/p>\n But once the early voting and Election Day ballots were all counted on Tuesday, it was Democrat Taylor Rehmet who\u00a0raked in the most votes<\/a>\u00a0out of all three candidates, coming within three percentage points \u2014 fewer than 3,000 votes \u2014 of a stunning outright win. He led with 47.6% of votes over conservative activist Leigh Wambsganss\u2019 36% and former Republican Southlake Mayor John Huffman\u2019s 16%.<\/p>\n It was a remarkable finish for a Democrat running in a Tarrant County-based district that voted for President Donald Trump by more than 17 points last year, and who spent just $68,000 compared to the millions deployed by each of his GOP opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n Because nobody won a majority of the votes, Rehmet and Wambsganss will face off in a runoff election, likely in January. Despite coming out of Tuesday on top, Rehmet remains an underdog in the overtime contest, with his nearly 48% support in the first round outweighed by the combined GOP vote for his opponents.<\/p>\n Still, Rehmet\u2019s surprise near-win \u2014 and Democratic victories around the country \u2014 seemed to offer hope for a\u00a0beleaguered<\/a>\u00a0Texas Democratic Party going into 2026 desperate to reverse course after getting blown out in virtually every statewide race since Trump\u2019s first midterm cycle eight years ago.\u00a0Some<\/a>\u00a0in the party saw Tuesday\u2019s surge as evidence that Democratic turnout and backlash to the Trump administration next year could resemble the blue wave that swept through the nation in 2018 and made Democrats competitive statewide in Texas.<\/p>\n Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said Rehmet\u2019s overperformance was driven by voters angry with the Trump administration and the broader state of the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that Rehmet did as well as he did speaks to the level of energized anti-Trump sentiment in the Democratic base, and the fact that Republicans going into the midterms have a real turnout and enthusiasm gap that they are going to have to address, or else they\u2019re going to see some surprising and painful losses,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n GOP strategists acknowledged that backlash to the Trump administration and energized Democratic voters could threaten Republicans next year, but warned against drawing conclusions from the Senate District 9 results and other off-year contests.<\/p>\n \u201cI really think it turns on the economy,\u201d Vinny Minchillo, a Plano-based Republican strategist, said. \u201cI hate to read too much into anything like this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Rehmet, a union leader, machinist and Air Force veteran, largely stood to the side as his Republican opponents battled each other for the GOP vote. He spent less than half of the $150,000 he raised over the course of his campaign in one of the country\u2019s most expensive media markets. Yet he ran several points ahead of the district\u2019s Democratic nominee in 2022 and Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, both of whom received about 40% from voters in Senate District 9.<\/p>\n Wambsganss, meanwhile, spent around $1.4 million on her campaign, while Huffman\u2019s bid was largely financed by casino magnate Miriam Adelson and her Las Vegas Sands empire, whose PACs spent some $3.5 million donating to Huffman\u2019s campaign and paying for advertising on his behalf.<\/p>\n \u201cFor them to spend several million dollars and for Republican turnout to not be higher and more favorable for the Republicans combined is a pretty good sign in the short term,\u201d said Katherine Fischer, director of Texas Majority PAC, which supported Rehmet\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n In the long term, Fischer said it was difficult to forecast what Tuesday\u2019s results mean for future contests.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, she said that \u201cthere\u2019s just no doubt that all election results since November indicate that voters are extremely frustrated with the Trump administration and are punishing Republicans for it.\u201d She noted that Rehmet captured 44% of early votes \u2014 even though only 35% of early voters in the race were tagged as likely Democrats.<\/p>\n Rehmet focused his campaign on working interests, with a populist message based on affordability and kitchen table issues, echoing that of numerous Democrats nationwide, including the leading candidates for the U.S. Senate nomination in Texas, state Rep.\u00a0James Talarico<\/a>\u00a0and former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred.<\/p>\n Matt Angle, a Democratic strategist and director of the Lone Star Project, said Rehmet\u2019s campaign showed that Democrats focusing on \u201cnuts and bolts issues\u201d was effective. He added that Tuesday\u2019s result reflected a rejection of Republican extremism and devotion to Trump that Democrats had to capitalize on.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Republicans have veered off the road, driving on the far-right shoulder, throwing up mud and dust,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s left the middle lane wide open, and Democrats need to get in and cruise.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Minchillo, the GOP strategist, said the runoff election would be decided based on turnout, and that while Rehmet\u2019s win suggested more Democrats showed up at the polls than expected, Wambsganss still remained the favorite in the comfortably red district. She also has endorsements from Trump, U.S. Sen.\u00a0Ted Cruz<\/a>\u00a0and Lt. Gov.\u00a0Dan Patrick<\/a>, each of whom carried the district by wide margins in their most recent elections and have significant war chests and donor networks at their disposal.<\/p>\n Democratic strategists also acknowledged that the runoff favors Wambsganss, given the district\u2019s partisan lean, yet they said Rehmet\u2019s near-win suggests it will be a competitive race. Both the candidate and Texas Majority PAC vowed to double down on his campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t at least try to win, we would be doing everyone a serious disservice,\u201d Fischer said.<\/p>\n On the Republican side, strategists predicted that the GOP would coalesce around Wambsganss and go on the offensive against Rehmet, after a bitter first round that saw the two Republican candidates direct much of the campaign spending against each other. Indeed, Wambsganss on Wednesday touted\u00a0new endorsements<\/a>\u00a0from Hancock, U.S. Rep.\u00a0Beth Van Duyne<\/a>\u00a0of Irving and numerous state lawmakers.<\/p>\n Even if Rehmet loses the runoff, Angle said, Tuesday\u2019s results gave Democrats a desperately needed jolt of energy going into 2026, particularly in a highly competitive county that has become something of a bellwether, having evolved from one of the nation\u2019s largest red counties into one that swings regularly between the two parties, after\u00a0years of rapid growth and demographic change<\/a>. In 2024, Tarrant County went for Allred over Cruz by a quarter of a percentage point, and for Trump by just 5 points, as he won the state by a 14-point margin. The county narrowly voted for Gov.\u00a0Greg Abbott<\/a>\u00a0two years earlier, after siding with Joe Biden by a hair in 2020 and Beto O\u2019Rourke in 2018.<\/p>\n While Angle argued that Republicans in the county \u201chave gone off the edge,\u201d he said Democrats will still need to work to scoop up disaffected swing voters.<\/p>\n \u201cThe question is, can we overcome the fact that a lot of people just default to Republicans in Tarrant?\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s getting closer and closer. The question is whether or not Democrats can occupy not just the left, but the middle, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Rehmet promised to continue pushing for a victory in round two.<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s the truth: When you talk to people instead of at them, you win,\u201d he said\u00a0on social media<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday. \u201cWhen you organize block by block, instead of begging billionaires for checks, you win. When you fight like hell for working families because you are one, you win. And we will win this runoff.\u201d<\/p>\n