(Fort Worth, Texas) — February 2, 2026 — A union leader scored a stunning upset in a Texas state Senate district long considered a Republican stronghold, signaling a potential shift in the political landscape of the rapidly changing Tarrant County suburbs.
Taylor Rehmet, a 33-year-old union chapter president, won more than 57% of the vote in Saturday’s special election for Senate District 9, a district that voted for Donald Trump by 17 percentage points just last year.
- Taylor Rehmet, a Democrat, won a special election in a historically Republican district.
- His victory is attributed to converting Republican voters and appealing to independents with a message of working-class solidarity.
- The win is seen as a symbolic earthquake, potentially signaling growing discontent with the far right in Tarrant County.
- While the seat is up for reelection in November, the result has implications for the broader political climate in Texas.
Rehmet’s victory over Leigh Wambsganss, who was heavily funded by billionaire donors, is being described by some as one of the biggest upsets of the Trump era. He successfully converted many Republican voters and courted independents, according to early analysis of the results.
Why It Matters
While the legislative impact of Rehmet’s win is limited – he will only serve the remaining eleven months of a term vacated by Kelly Hancock, who was appointed Texas comptroller – the symbolic weight is significant. Senate District 9, encompassing conservative Tarrant County suburbs, has not elected a Democrat since 1991. The result demonstrates a potential vulnerability for Republicans in a region that has been a crucial hub for the state’s far right and the birthplace of the Tea Party movement in Texas, as noted by the Keranews in 2017.
Wambsganss, the chief communications officer of Patriot Mobile, a cellphone company that funds Christian nationalist candidates, received roughly $2.3 million in donations, more than half from billionaire-funded political action committees, including Texans United for a Conservative Majority, backed by oil tycoon Tim Dunn. Despite this financial advantage and a last-minute endorsement from former President Donald Trump, she was defeated.
Rehmet’s campaign centered on “working-class solidarity,” a message that resonated with a coalition of unions, progressives, blue-collar voters, and disaffected Republicans. Republican strategist Ross Hunt wrote on social media Sunday that the election wasn’t a result of increased Democratic enthusiasm, but rather “Republicans LOST it because of the failure to persuade swing Republicans and right-leaning independents.”
Background and Context
The northern Tarrant County suburbs have undergone a significant political transformation in the last fifteen years, with a far-right movement actively working to suppress Democratic opposition. Recently retired Tarrant County GOP chair Bo French, now running for the Railroad Commission, previously stated the goal was to make the region “inhospitable” to Democrats. Wambsganss was a key figure in this movement, leading efforts to take over local school boards in the early 2020s, as reported by Texas Monthly.
Some conservatives have downplayed the significance of Rehmet’s win, pointing to the historically low turnout in special elections and Wambsganss’s divisive campaign rhetoric, which attacked a primary opponent as a “shill for communist China” and a “demonic” force, potentially alienating some voters. However, the victory still represents a notable message about growing discontent with the local far right and the Trump administration.
“At the end of the day, the explanation for [what] happened last night was NOT that Democrats won TX SD-9 because of increased Dem enthusiasm,” Hunt wrote on social media. “Rather, it was that Republicans LOST it because of the failure to persuade swing Republicans and right-leaning independents.”
Time.news based this report in part on reporting by Texas Monthly and added independent analysis and context.
