shift among Hispanic voters<\/a> back toward Democrats helped propel\u00a0Rehmet\u2019s January win.<\/p>\nRehmet said he believes the shift reflects frustration over rising costs rather than allegiance to either party. He said voters he\u2019s talked to are fed up with current leadership and want a candidate who can help provide financial relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don’t have time to focus on the culture wars or the campaigns of outrage. They only have time to focus on why is my paycheck not going as far as it did,\u201d he told The Dallas Morning News.<\/p>\n
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Wambsganss sees a different lesson in January\u2019s results. She called the election \u201ca blessing\u201d that awakened Republicans to the county\u2019s changing demographics and the need to do a better job communicating their efforts to reduce property taxes, such as expanding the homestead exemption.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepublicans have a lot of work to do, and I feel like our state Legislature has done better session after session,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Political contrasts<\/p>\n
Rehmet, 34, is a union organizer and machinist for Lockheed Martin who, after his nine months in office, has not had the chance to cast a single vote or file a bill. That\u2019s because the Legislature has not been in session.<\/p>\n
He assumed the unexpired term of former Sen. Kelly Hancock, who resigned in 2025 to accept an appointment as comptroller.<\/p>\n
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Wambsganss, 58, is the chief communications officer for Patriot Mobile, a cellphone service provider that advocates for conservative causes, and became involved in North Texas school board elections.<\/p>\n
Rehmet has drawn support from prominent Texas Democrats, while Wambsganss has secured endorsements from leading Texas Republicans, including President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
She has a significant financial advantage, having raised and spent more than six times as much as Rehmet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Contributions from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a group that pushes to limit lawsuits and damages, and a political action committee backed by Republican megadonor Tim Dunn helped push her fundraising total to $1.2 million since July 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rehmet raised $192,000 over the same period mainly from Lake Bridgeport business owner Daniel Cocanougher, union groups and small donors.<\/p>\n
But the gap is narrower in cash on hand, with Wambsganss reporting about $195,000 remaining compared with Rehmet\u2019s $127,000.<\/p>\n
Campaign criticism<\/p>\n
Wambsganss\u2019 critics say she has run to the center to co-opt\u00a0Rehmet\u2019s affordability-centric message.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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While her message on the campaign trail has remained focused on property tax reform, they point to her involvement with Patriot Mobile as proof that she is more conservative than she projects.<\/p>\n
The company calls itself \u201cAmerica\u2019s only Christian conservative wireless provider,\u201d and it made waves in North Texas after its political advocacy wing supported the election wins of numerous school board candidates.<\/p>\n
In some districts where those candidates won controlling majorities, they worked to install new policies that dictated how teachers could talk about race, what library books are on shelves and transgender pronouns.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe’s just making a desperate attempt to convince people that she’s something she’s not,\u201d said Tarrant County Democratic Chair Allison Campolo.<\/p>\n
She cited the removal of Trump endorsement language from campaign signs as evidence of Wambsganss distancing herself from the president.<\/p>\n
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Wambsganss dismissed those accusations and said she is not hiding her endorsements from Trump or other Republicans. \u201cIt\u2019s silly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDistancing myself from anyone has not been a thought that has come across my mind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Competiting policies<\/p>\n
While the campaign has been focused on reducing property taxes, Wambsganss said transparency in government finances and placing guardrails on data centers would be a priority for her in the Legislature\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Rehmet\u2019s has come under fire for his donations to prominent Democrats, including small monthly donations totaling about $30 in donations to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made last year, according to Federal Election Commission records.<\/p>\n
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Jeremy Bradford, a Tarrant County Republican strategist who supports Wambsganss, said those donations show that Rehmet\u2019s political beliefs are more extreme than he lets on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s as far left as you can get,\u201d Bradford said.<\/p>\n
Rehmet said he pays little attention to his critics, rejecting suggestions that his political views are out of step with Texans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ll make it very clear. I am a capitalist. I’m not a socialist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His campaign includes an \u201caffordability agenda\u201d that would reduce property taxes by dedicating more state money to public education, calls for an end to large healthcare premium hikes and create prohibitions on dynamic and AI pricing in grocery stores, health insurance and housing.<\/p>\n
Early voting starts Monday and runs through Oct. 30. Election Day is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democrat Taylor Rehmet and Republican Leigh Wambsganss are running for Tarrant County state Senate District 9. philip.jankowski@dallasnews.com AUSTIN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-469577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469577","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=469577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}