Tarrant County voters at SD 9 polls voice frustration with political extremism
Voters at three of Tarrant County’s busiest election sites were drawn to the polls for the same reason: They’re sick of the extremism.
People across the county were casting their ballots on Saturday in a special election runoff to fill a North Texas Senate seat. Voters were picking between Democrat Taylor Rehmet, a veteran, aircraft mechanic and union leader, and Republican Leigh Wambsganss, a Republican activist who worked for phone company Grapevine-based Patriot Mobile, which calls itself a Christian conservative cell phone company.
Both candidates said every vote will make a difference and pushed for a strong turnout with door-knocking and phone banking.
Voters at the polls on Election Day hoped their ballot would help swing the district blue or keep it red, even if only for a year.
Pablo Tapia said he came out to vote because he knew the race would be tight. Rehmet’s union and military background appealed to the Keller resident, who sees Rehmet as being center politically.
“We are really polarized right now, he said. “The real issues are really not on the table.”
He pointed to receiving a fair, livable wage as an example.
“I feel like he’s trying just to take the noise out of … what I would consider the issues that are not real,” Tapia said.
Jeff Mueller, a GOP precinct chair who lives in Fort Worth, sees Wambsganss as a middle of the road Republican — “Maybe a little right.”
“Conservative values. Medium of the road, moderate, little of everything,” he said. “We have too extreme on the left, and we have too extreme on the right.”
A traditionally Republican voter, Summerglen Library voter Greg Goodrich said he’s not happy with the direction the local Republican Party is going. Goodrich was specifically displeased with the Keller school board’s plan to potentially split the district in two, which was abandoned in the end.
Goodrich lives “on the wrong side of the tracks.”
“That’s not what got me out here today, and that’s not particularly what got me to vote for [Rehmet], but that has been on the family’s mind here recently,” Goodrich said.
He hopes if the Democrat wins the Texas Senate seat, it’ll get local Republicans’ attention and force them to course correct.
Wambsganss’ embrace of the MAGA movement was key in winning the support of Helena Pellicie from Keller. The Republican candidate has the endorsement of President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called on voters to elect Wambsganss.
“She is a MAGA conservative, so that’s important to me because I support the MAGA agenda,” she said.
On the other hand, Jeff Griebeler of Keller sees his support of Rehmet as a way of sending a message to Trump. He likes some of the president’s initiatives thus far, but said Trump is also doing some “crazy” stuff.
“I believe in like border patrols and those kind of things, but he’s killing people in the streets, and it’s excessive,” said Griebeler, who didn’t have enough time to vote but planned to cast his ballot later in the day.
Shannon Williams, a Keller City Hall voter, said she cast a ballot for Wambsganss out of concern for what Democrats have become.
“They’re just flat out communist socialists at best,” Williams said. “It’s not what this country was founded on. I know I have more days behind me than I do ahead of me, but I do have children and grandchildren that I certainly don’t want them to live in a socialist country, because they fail. They always have.”
Williams said all she can do is pray and vote.
The only way to move away from extremism, Summerglen Library voter John Brown said, is to ensure both sides have a voice in Austin. That’s why he voted for Rehmet.
“Right now, the power is so lopsided that that’s the only way to combat it,” Brown said.
There were 26 more Republicans than Democrats in the Texas House and nine more Republicans than Democrats in the Senate when lawmakers met during the last legislative session.
“I don’t know if it actually solves the problem of over polarization,” Brown said, “but there’s one side right now and so to get another voice in there is the only option.”
This story was originally published January 31, 2026 at 7:12 PM.
