![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/runoff.jpg\")
article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
Leigh Wambsganss (left) and Taylor Rehmet <\/p>\n
TARRANT COUNTY, Texas – Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered a runoff election for the state Senate’s District 9.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The special election for the North Texas seat has been set for Jan. 31.<\/p>\n
District 9 runoff election <\/p>\n
The latest:<\/p>\n
The runoff election is to decide the winner of the seat previously held by Sen. Kelly Hancock, who resigned in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Republican activist Leigh Wambsganss and Democrat Taylor Rehmet will be on the ballot. Wambsganss received 36 percent<\/a> of the vote on Nov. 4, split with 36 percent for fellow Republican John Huffman. Rehmet nearly won outright with 48 percent of the vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Early voting will begin on Jan. 21, 2026, Abbott’s proclamation says, and is set to end Jan. 27. The election will be held Jan. 31.\u00a0<\/p>\n Battle for District 9 <\/p>\n The backstory:<\/p>\n The seat was vacated when Hancock left the position before his term expired to become the acting state comptroller.\u00a0<\/p>\n The race was characterized by stark contrasts in backing: Wambsganss secured the support of party hardliners, including President Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rehmet, an Air Force veteran and union leader, campaigned on working-class issues, hoping the Republican split would allow him a chance at securing a runoff berth.\u00a0<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n The winner will serve the rest of the term through the end of 2026. If a Republican prevails, the State Senate will be composed of 19 Republicans and 11 Democrats.<\/p>\n The Source: Information in this report came from the Texas governor’s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n Election<\/a>Tarrant County<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Leigh Wambsganss (left) and Taylor Rehmet TARRANT COUNTY, Texas – Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[409,223,287,122,27,29,28,216,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-55502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-election","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-tarrant-county","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55502","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=55502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}