Democrat Taylor Rehmet defeats Leigh Wambsganss in Texas Senate runoff
Democrat Taylor Rehmet on Saturday flipped a solidly red district that President Donald Trump won by 17 points in 2024.
The union leader from Fort Worth defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss of Southlake in a special election runoff for the vacant state Senate District 9 seat that stretches across northern and western Tarrant County. Rehmet won 57.2% of the vote to Wambsganss’s 42.8%, according to unofficial results.
“Tonight, this win goes to everyday working people,” Rehmet, an aircraft technician at Lockheed Martin, told supporters at Nickel City in Fort Worth.
Rehmet fills the seat left by Kelly Hancock, a Republican who is now serving as acting comptroller. Hancock had held the seat since 2012 and won by 20 percentage points in 2022. The term expires in January 2027.
Wambsganss, a conservative activist who works for Patriot Mobile, which describes itself as a Christian, conservative cell phone company, had the backing Trump. The president shared his support for the North Texas Republican multiple times in the lead up to the race, as Texas Republicans warned of a possible Democratic victory.
Rehmet and Wambsganss will meet again for the seat in November, when they bid for a full, four-year term.
Wambsganss shuts down Election Night watch party
It was 12:15 a.m. when Wambsganss acknowledged the “nearly final” results.
She called Saturday’s outcome a “wakeup call” for Republicans in Tarrant County, Texas and nationally.
“The Democrats were energized,” Wambsganss said. “Too many Republicans stayed home.”
Wambsganss said she’d spoken with Rehmet on the phone and congratulated him on the night’s showings but said the November general election dynamics are fundamentally different.
“I believe the voters of Senate District 9 and Tarrant County Republicans will answer the call in November,” she said.
Earlier in the night, at 10:30 p.m., Wambsganss took to the stage of her election night watch party to announce the festivities were over, but she did not concede.
“You guys, the good news is, God is on our side,” she said at her watch party at Niki’s Italian Bistro in North Richland Hills.
Tarrant County GOP Chairman Tim Davis said earlier in the evening that Saturday’s election is not a bellwether. Tarrant County is “ruby red,” he said.
“If we describe this election, it is a special election runoff with weather. I’ve never used a sentence in my life before with so many adjectives, so we have to take it in that context,” Davis said. “Did we lose? It looks like it. But what do we learn from that? And how do we go forward from that? That’s what we’re going to learn tonight.”
Shortly after Wambsganss ended her watch party, Rehmet took a moment to address attendees of his event. His campaign hadn’t declared victory, but the energy was palpable as the night looked to be going Rehmet’s way.
“We still have more work to do, but right now we are celebrating that we’ve worked so hard,” Rehmet said. “And we have to follow the results. We have to continue to have our energy. We have a lot more work to do, and I did not do this alone. I did it because all of you showed up.”
Rehmet supporters celebrate in Fort Worth
Rehmet’s supporters were in high spirits after early voting results came in, eager that the trend would hold throughout the night and flip the seat blue. They packed Nickel City in Fort Worth, sipping drinks and mingling as they waited or Rehmet to arrive and address the crowd.
Tucked in a table near the back of the bar, Haltom City resident Amy Bush said she was hopeful about his chances. She likes that Rehmet isn’t the “typical Democrat,” pointing to his military background and work as a machinist.
Before the final results were known, Bush said a victory would prove “we’re tired of being told what to do, and we’re ready to step up and do what we need to, to get our state back.”
When Rehmet arrived, he was met by an eruption of cheers.
Not too long after, the bar briefly began to chant “Taylor” in celebration of what was looking like a favorable outcome for their candidate of choice. Queen’s “We Are the Champions” later blasted in the room, one of the upbeat songs cycling throughout the night.
Soon after early voting numbers dropped, District 8 City Council member Chris Nettles said he thought Rehmet’s lead would hold.
A win for Rehmet would be bigger than just the special election runoff, he said.
“I think it’s bigger than tonight,” Nettles said. “I think if this seat is flipped, there’s potential to flip several seats in the upcoming election ... Tarrant County wide for November.”
Wambsganss ‘not surprised at all’ by early voting numbers
The early voting results alone put Rehmet about 6,000 votes ahead of Wambsganss. She said she knew winning out the gate was a long shot because midterm elections and special elections are “tough on Republicans.”
“So I’m not surprised at all,” Wambsganss said directly after the early voting results came out. “That’s why we’ve been fighting so hard. That’s why we haven’t stopped fighting.”
Wambsganss said she’s still hopeful for the rematch in November.
“In November, it won’t just be my race, it’ll be statewide,” Wambsganss said at the watch party Saturday. “We’ll have an up ballot to help pull that along. So, yeah, very, very helpful.”
Along with other Republican leaders, including Trump, Wambsganss pushed hard for voters to show out on Election Day. She said the ice storm that swung through Tarrant County put a big damper on voter turnout because people couldn’t leave their houses.
How we got here
The first round of the Senate District 9 special election in November was marked by political spars between two Republican candidates, contributions from Republican donor billionaires and an upset when Rehmet got the most votes in what has been a historically red district, pushing the race into a runoff.
Rehmet earned 48% of votes — not enough to win the race outright, but enough to put him in the lead of Wambsganss by nearly 12 percentage points in what’s considered a red district. The trend corresponded with Democratic victories across the country in what many saw as a referendum on Trump’s second term.
The district covers most of western and northern Tarrant County, and is open after Hancock left the Legislature to serve as acting Texas comptroller. Rehmet led in the first round of voting in November, but neither candidate received more than 50% of the votes, pushing the race into Saturday’s runoff.
The last Democratic senator from Northeast Tarrant County was Bill Meier of Hurst, who won in 1978 and switched to the Republican Party in 1981. .
Rehmet will fill out the remainder of Hancock’s term over the next year. Both Rehmet and Wambsganss are running for a full term in the November general election.
The Texas Legislature doesn’t gavel in for its next legislative session in Austin until 2027. Unless Gov. Greg Abbott calls a special session before then, the newly elected senator won’t be voting on new laws over the next year.
Instead, Rehmet’s job is likely to include helping constituents and attending interim hearings, where testimony is taken and potential policies are studied in preparation the coming session.
This story was originally published January 31, 2026 at 7:03 PM.
