A Democratic candidate won a special election for the Texas state senate by a double-digit margin, taking control from Republicans for the first time in decades in a result the losing candidate yesterday called ‘a wake-up call’ for the midterm elections.
The victory for a seat vacated by a four-term Republican followed a string of wins in recent months for the Democratic Party in local and state elections across the country, offering hope for national Democrats looking to claw back power in midterm elections later this year.
Taylor Rehmet, a union machinist and US Air Force veteran, won on Saturday in the conservative area near Dallas by more than 14 percentage points over Republican activist Leigh Wambsganss, whom President Donald Trump had urged voters to rally behind.
In a statement yesterday, Wambsganss said she congratulated Rehmet on his victory and called the Democratic win a ‘wake-up call’ for local and national Republicans. “The Democrats were energised,” Wambsganss said. “Too many Republicans stayed home.”
Trump on Saturday touted Wambsganss as a ‘true MAGA Warrior’ and tried to rally voters to the polls on her behalf.
But yesterday he distanced himself from the loss, saying he was not involved as it was a ‘local Texas race’. “I’m not on the ballot, so you don’t know whether or not it’s transferable,” Trump said.
The district is more Republican than overall Tarrant County, which Trump won by five percentage points in the 2024 presidential election but Joe Biden won in 2020 by fewer than 2,000 votes.
Wambsganss said she expects to defeat Rehmet when they face off again in the November election for the seat’s full four-year term. But Democrats cited rising momentum heading into the midterm elections in November, when control of Congress is at stake. “Democrats are building on our historic overperformance, and we’re not slowing down,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin wrote in a social media post.
The outcome wasn’t entirely unexpected. In the November election that led to the runoff, Rehmet had the top result with 48 per cent, while Wambsganss and John Huffman split the Republican vote.
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