Democrat Wins Texas Special Election in District Trump Won By 17 Points
Topline
A Democrat handily won a special election to fill a Texas state senate seat in a Fort Worth and Tarrant County district President Donald Trump won by 17 points in the 2024 presidential election, prompting Trump to dismiss the race even as anxiety grows among Republicans over concerns they could lose power in the upcoming midterms.
“Things like that happen, I’m not on the ballot,” Trump told reporters on Sunday.
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Key Facts
Democrat Taylor Rehmet, an Air Force veteran, Lockheed Martin machinist and union leader, defeated Republican candidate Leigh Wambsganss, a conservative activist and chief communications officer for Patriot Mobile, a Christian conservative wireless provider, who secured endorsements from Trump and important Texas conservatives including Gov. Greg Abbott.
Trump insisted Sunday he was “not involved in that, that’s a Texas local race,” despite publicly endorsing Wambsganss, also telling reporters at Mar-a-Lago “things like that happen, I’m not on the ballot”—echoing his response after Democrats were widely seen as overperforming in the off-year elections last November.
Despite Trump’s strong performance in the district in 2024, Rehmet’s victory was somewhat resounding—winning a reported 57.2% of the vote for a margin of more than 14 percentage points ahead of Wambsganss.
Was Turnout Low?
Some Republican leaders pointed to the timing of Saturday’s election as the reason for Rehmet’s victory. “Low turnout special elections are always unpredictable,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement on social media on Sunday. Turnout was fairly low on Saturday—just 94,880 votes were cast, according to the New York Times with data from the Associated Press. In comparison, 277,883 votes were cast during the last time the seat was contested in 2022, according to data from Ballotpedia. However, turnout still vastly outpaced that of other major Texas elections on Saturday. Only 23,652 votes were cast in the runoff election to replace Rep. Sylvester Turner’s, D-Texas, seat in the House of Representatives, the Associated Press reported. Turner’s district, Texas’s 18th District, is a heavily Democratic-leaning district outside of Houston, and is favored D+29, according to Cook Political Report. The winning candidate, Democrat Christian Menefee, prevailed over rival Democrat Amanda Edwards with 68.4% of the vote in a runoff.
A ‘wakeup Call’ For Republicans
Democrats are already pointing to the upset victory as evidence of growing dissatisfaction with Trump’s policies, with Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin calling it a “warning sign to Republicans across the country” in a statement. “Republicans had to go all out and still lost this race. Tonight’s results prove that no Republican seat is safe,” Martin said. In a statement released on Saturday, Wambsganss called the results a “wakeup call” for Texas, her district and the nation. “Democrats were energized. Too many Republicans stayed home.” Patrick also called the results a “wakeup call” for his party in a statement on social media on Sunday, noting “our voters cannot take anything for granted.”
What To Watch For
The special election took place on Saturday to replace former state Sen. Kelly Hancock, a Republican who stepped down last year to serve as the acting state comptroller. Wambsganss will have a second chance to win the seat in the general election in November. The first-time candidate was still confident about her chances to win the seat back, saying, “I fully expect the results to be different.” The Republican lieutenant governor was still bullish about his party’s chances in November, insisting, “I know the energy and strength the Republican grassroots in Texas possess. We will come out fighting with a new resolve, and we will take this seat back in November.”
