Democrat Scores Upset in Deep Red Texas Senate District; GOP Warns of ‘Wakeup Call’

Taylor Rehmet, a Democrat, has won a Texas state Senate race in a district that then-former President Donald Trump carried by 17 points in 2024, flipping a longtime Republican seat in a low-turnout special election that both parties say carries lessons for the fall.

The win came on the same night that Christian Menefee, a Democrat, prevailed in a special election for a Texas U.S. House seat, narrowing the GOP’s already slim majority in Congress’s lower chamber.

Rehmet, a labor union leader and Air Force veteran, defeated the Republican candidate, Leigh Wambsganss, who is a conservative activist and entrepreneur, by more than 14 percentage points in the Fort Worth–area Senate District 9, with all votes counted. The final results were 54,280 (57.21 percent) to 40,600 (42.79 percent), according to the Tarrant County Elections website.

Trump won the district in 2024, and Republicans have held the seat for decades. Rehmet will serve the remainder of a term that runs until early January 2027. Rehmet and Wambsganss are expected to face each other again in November for a full four-year term.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on X: “Special elections are quirky and not necessarily projectable re: a general election. That said, a swing of this magnitude is not something that can be dismissed. Republicans should be clear-eyed about the political environment heading into the midterms.”

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick warned his party not to assume that the seat will stay in GOP hands.

“Low turnout special elections are always unpredictable. The results from SD 9 are a wake-up call for Republicans across Texas. Our voters cannot take anything for granted,” Patrick said in a statement.

“I know the energy and strength the Republican grassroots in Texas possesses. We will come out fighting with a new resolve, and we will take this seat back in November.

“We will keep Texas red.”

When reporters asked about the loss, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump said: “I’m not involved in that. That’s a local Texas race.”

The day before the election, he posted on Truth Social, urging Texans to support Wambsganss, saying she had his “Complete and Total Endorsement” and praising her as a successful entrepreneur and “an incredible supporter” of his Make America Great Again movement. He endorsed her again on the day of the election, Jan. 31.

Following the win, Rehmet told supporters in a post on X, “This win goes to everyday working people.”

Democrats pointed to the result as part of a broader trend. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) said that Rehmet’s win is one of more than 200 contests in which Democrats have either won or outperformed expectations since Trump returned to the White House.

“Senator-elect Rehmet ran an exceptional campaign focused on solutions to the issues that families care most about, from the rising cost of groceries and utilities to the health care crisis, all unleashed by Donald Trump and Texas Republicans,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.

“It’s clear as day that this disastrous Republican agenda is hurting working families in Texas and across the country, which is why voters in red, blue, and purple districts are putting their faith in candidates like Taylor Rehmet. This victory is a warning sign to Republicans across the country. In a Trump +17 district, Republicans had to go all out and still lost this race. Tonight’s results prove that no Republican seat is safe. From now until November, Democrats are keeping our foot on the gas and organizing and competing everywhere, including in Texas and the rest of the Sun Belt.”

The DNC said it boosted the race through its “Red State Fund,” which sends $22,500 a month to the Texas Democratic Party for organizing and other work, and by recruiting volunteers and sending get-out-the-vote texts in the final days.

Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder said the race shows what can happen when the party leans into an economic message.

“Taylor Rehmet proved what we already knew: when you stand with working people and talk about the future, Texans listen,” Scudder said. “This win shows what is possible in Texas with strong organizing, great candidates, and strategic investments. People are noticing that Democrats have the workers’ backs and are delivering results. We congratulate Taylor and look forward to the leadership he will bring to Austin.”

The party also highlighted a joint project with Texas Majority PAC under the “Blue Texas” banner. Katherine Fischer, executive director of Texas Majority PAC, said volunteers “knocked on 20,000 doors and made a half million phone calls to voters in SD 9,” adding that “people from all over Texas joined this effort, proving that Texans are ready for change.”

Rehmet’s campaign also drew national support from groups such as VoteVets, a veterans organization that said it spent $500,000 on ads in the race.

Republican leaders said that the result says more about turnout than about the district’s long-term lean. Wambsganss called the defeat “a wakeup call for Republicans in Tarrant County, Texas, and the nation” and said “too many Republicans stayed home.”

The seat became vacant when four-term Republican Sen. Kelly Hancock resigned to take a statewide office. The district is more conservative than Tarrant County as a whole. Trump won the county in 2024 after President Joe Biden, a Democrat, narrowly carried it in 2020.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.