North Texas mayor joins race for Fort Worth-area state Senate District 9
Another Republican has entered the race for Texas Senate District 9.
“It’s official,” Keller Mayor Armin Mizani said in his post on X. “I’m in.”
Mizani will be on the ballot along with fellow Republican Leigh Wambsganss and Democrat Taylor Rehmet. Whoever wins in the special election on Nov. 4 will represent much of Northwest Tarrant County including North Richland Hills, Keller and White Settlement. The race will go into a runoff if a candidate doesn’t get more than half of the votes.
“Texas is at a critical juncture in its long and proud history,” Mizani said. “Now, more than ever, Texans deserve leaders with the experience and resolve necessary to offer solutions to the challenges we face.”
The mayor’s announcement for candidacy comes within two weeks of Wambsganss’s, when Texas Rep. Nate Schatzline withdrew.
“My #1 goal was for SD9 to be represented by a true conservative, & with Leigh Wambsganss, that’s exactly what you’ll get,” Schatzline said in his June 27 post on X. “She has my full support.”
A day after Wambsganss entered the race, Mizani told his social media following that he was giving prayerful consideration to running.
“Senate District 9 is the Republican lifeblood of Tarrant County—our voters deserve a strong and principled conservative that is only beholden to the interests of the people of SD9 and not the whims and wills of the Austin political machine,” Mizani said in the June 28 post.
As Keller’s mayor, Mizani said he has been just that.
“Simply put, this campaign will be motivated by my family and yours, guided by our shared conservative values, and focused on offering solutions to the challenges we face as Texans,” Mizani said.
As mayor of Keller, Mizani has been an outspoken supporter of Gov. Greg Abbott and the county commissioners redistricting and the Keller ISD school board during the district’s near-split.
Mizani has less than a year remaining on his three-year term. He was first elected mayor in 2020 after serving as a city council member from 2014-18.
This story was originally published July 8, 2025 at 10:49 AM.