On Saturday, a union leader and machinist named Taylor Rehmet will try to do what no Democrat has done since 2020: flip a seat in the Texas Senate. And he’s already come close enough to spook his opponents.
Any victory would be short-lived — since the winner of the special runoff election will only serve for less than a year, finishing out the remainder of a term vacated by Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock. But even a narrow loss for Rehmet could serve as a warning shot that the red-leaning seat — and others across Texas — could be in play this November.
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Rehmet is set to face conservative activist Leigh Wambsganss, whose advocacy at the local level helped the GOP reach new heights filling school boards with candidates who held Christian conservative views. The movement’s success resulted in an explosion across the country of book bans, rewriting of curricula and a thinner line separating church and state.
Rehmet came three percentage points shy of winning the election in November when he secured 47% of the vote in Tarrant County’s Senate District 9. President Donald Trump carried it by more than 17 points in 2024.
Rehmet’s near victory injected hope into a Democratic party eager for a blue wave in November — and fear in a GOP party — ahead of midterm elections that will measure the public’s response to Trump’s policies almost two years into his second term. Those worries have only been exacerbated by the circumstances of a January election date and last weekend’s inclement weather, which affected early voting and campaigning for a contest already expected to have low turnout in a state that has notoriously dismal turnout.
Rehmet’s close call in November was bolstered by the fact that he was the lone Democrat facing two GOP candidates, who split the Republican vote.
“This election is critical because the issues facing Texas right now have never been more stark,” Tarrant County GOP Chair Tim Davis wrote in an email to The Texas Tribune. “Do we want to live in communities that respect the rule of law, affirm life and the unborn, and protect women’s private spaces? Or do we want to live in places like what we’re seeing right now out of Minneapolis, full of fraud and chaos?”
Rehmet was far outspent in November, spending $68,000 compared to millions spent by two GOP candidates, which provided all the more reason for Democrats to find hope. He remains financially outgunned heading into Saturday. Wambsganss reported spending a whopping $736,000 in expenditures compared to Rehmet’s roughly $70,000, according to campaign finance filings with the state.
Outsiders have also been spending on the race. VoteVets, a progressive national veterans PAC, reported spending roughly $500,000 to benefit Rehmet. Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the upper chamber’s presiding officer, contributed $300,000 to Wambsganss’ campaign through his PAC, Texas Senate Leadership Fund.
“We have an opportunity to really show that if you have a good message and you stick to voters and what they want, listen, that you can win an election as an underdog, that you can overcome millions and millions spent against you,” Rehmet said in an interview. “As long as you’re doing the right thing, you can get elected.”
Wamnsganss, whose campaign did not return an interview request, is entering the contest with the backing of some of the state’s and party’s most prominent elected officials.
Among them is Gov. Greg Abbott, Patrick, who has been raising alarms about the special election, and Trump, who in an overnight social media post early Friday reiterated his own endorsement of Wamnsganss.
Wamnsganss is the chief communications officer for Patriot Mobile, a cell phone company that helped back the conservative school board candidates. That role helped court her support from top state elected officials but could present lines of criticism from parents who feel socially conservatives have gone too far.
To her backers, Wamnsganss’ win is imperative.
“I’m very concerned about this election,” Patrick said in a recent radio interview. “I’m pleading with the people in Tarrant County, every Republican go out and vote for Leigh Wambsganss.”
Whoever wins on Saturday won’t get much time to rest. The winner, and loser, will have to gear up for a November rematch to win a regular four-year term. Both Rehmet and Wambsganss will have no opponents in the March primary. More money could pour into the race.
In the November 2025 election, casino magnate Miriam Adelson and her casino empire, Las Vegas Sands, poured about $3.5 million into the GOP candidate that Wamnsganss trounced. Patrick, the chamber’s powerful leader, opposes casinos and Wamnsganss has echoed a similar sentiment.
Still, other top GOP donors are doling out cash to ensure the seat remains red, including Texans For Lawsuit Reform PAC, a tort reform group, and Texans United for a Conservative Majority, a group started by prolific far-right donors. Both gave Wamnsganss $150,000.
Among Rehmet’s biggest donors were Texas Majority PAC, the political arm of the Texas Democratic Party, which contributed more than half of his total haul with $143,383 in donations.
“His dollar per vote ratio is significantly better,” said Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair
Allison Campolo. “If he wins, or even if he loses by a very small margin, it’s very bad news for the Republicans, and it really sets the stage for the whole rest of the year and all the elections to come this year.”
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