TX-SD09: Democrats hold out hope to flip red Texas Senate seat in Saturday's special election
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.
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.
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/30/texas-senate-district-9-runoff-rehmet-wambsganss-special-election/