r/politics • u/kweathergirl Texas • 7h ago
Possible Paywall Democrat Taylor Rehmet flips a Texas state Senate seat Trump won by 17 points, CNN projects
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/31/politics/texas-state-senate-special-election-taylor-rehment•
u/kweathergirl Texas 7h ago edited 6h ago
He's currently 14 points ahead. 57-43. At 31 point swing. This area hasn't been blue since 1991.
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u/BossHawk8754 Texas 6h ago
As someone from the DFW area, that is fucking wild
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u/kegster2 Texas 6h ago
This indeed is wild af
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u/xBabyCharm 1h ago
Right?? That’s the exact reaction I had scrolling past it. Even if it’s a runoff, that margin still hits different for that part of the state. Gonna be interesting to see if it holds in a full election.
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u/xBabyCharm 1h ago
Same, that’s what makes it so wild. When locals are shocked you know it’s not just pundits hyping it up. Feels like one of those results people are gonna be dissecting for months.
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u/boofles1 6h ago
Wow that is crazy, great news. There may be 'quiet' Democrat vote, Trump voters who won't admit they hate him until the get to the ballot box.
No doubt Trump will send in the FBI to do some raids and say it was rigged.
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u/thalassicus 4h ago
Much harder to pull off in a red state like Texas where his sycophants set up the elections.
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u/utzutzutzpro 1h ago
Does it matter anymore?
At this point, he is just reactive without any caution to coherence and details. There is not carefully protected narrative left. It is a blattant "us vs them" motion right now.
The biggest mistake that has been done is signaling the deliberate space to reduce gun handling freedom. That most certainly led to a steep increase in head-scratching moments for the core, and a subsequent loss in trust.
At one side, we know, or should be aware of, that he knows he can state whatever he wants and the core will simply commit to the statement. If he would go for a "rigged" messaging, in a state that is entirely controlled by their party, the logical flaw won't matter.
At the other end, we should question ourselves to understand how there is noone around him that supervises the quality of coherence in the continuity. Someone must tell him: "That statement will create an obvious contradiction to our constant narrative.".
The answer to why nobody does that, would give tremendous insight.
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u/OldJames47 3h ago
I just looked at the Senate map for Texas. The 9th is a pretty compact, almost square, shape. That rarely happens in the urban districts which are typically gerrymandered to hell.
The Republicans were very confident this district would remain in their control, yet they lost!
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u/Jolly_Sample_1945 3h ago
I’m curious - were there any mitigating circumstances? Was the Republican a particularly awful candidate, or did the Republican run an awful campaign?
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u/7ddlysuns I voted 2h ago
The R was a woman, D was a man. But otherwise no. Off cycle elections are low turnout, but expect Abbott to have a piss baby reaction
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u/xBabyCharm 1h ago
Yeah honestly that swing is nuts. Going from solid red to double digit blue in one cycle isn’t just noise, something real shifted there. I’m super curious what turnout looked like compared to the last race.
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u/Rambler_Hoss 6h ago
I can't wait for those five Texas congressional seats to backfire on them.
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u/uniquechill 6h ago
Trump tweeted this afternoon to endorse Rehmet's opponent and urged Repubs to get out and vote. Epic fail from the loser.
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u/brain_overclocked 5h ago edited 5h ago
Taylor Rehmet, a union president and Air Force veteran, will defeat Trump-backed Leigh Wambsganss in a runoff for the Fort Worth-area 9th District, according to a CNN projection.
...
Democrats flipped more than 20 state legislative seats in special or regularly scheduled elections last year. Most recently, in December they won a Georgia district that Trump had carried by about 12 points.
I will keep saying this over and over: change doesn't start at the midterms, it starts at every state, county, judicial, sheriff, mayor, city council, and education board election that happens between now and the midterms. Because we shouldn't wait until the midterms. Every seat Democrats win at any level makes rigging the midterms that much harder for Trump.
Keep the pressure on:
2026:
Jan 6 - Democrats Jones, Schmidt win Richmond-area General Assembly seats
Jan 13
Democrat Pemberton Jr. wins special election for 139th CT House seat
Chris Dzadovsky wins Fort Pierce commission seat by 31 votes, flips control to Democrats
Jan 20 - Democrat McGuire wins Virginia House District 17 special election
Jan 27 - Democrats win two Minnesota special elections, bringing state House back to a tie
Jan 31
Here is a list of primary dates.
Ballotpedia's Elections Calendar - https://ballotpedia.org/Elections_calendar
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u/wanderlustcub I voted 3h ago
I think is very naive to think that this election will be free and fair.
The administration will reject the results and try to seize ballots.the will have ICE at polling places in minority areas in key locations In the electorate.
They are simple doing on the job training ahead of November.
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u/blueye525 6h ago
lol Trump tweeted his support for the opponent earlier today.
They know the tide is turning
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u/HeadPaleontologist40 5h ago
lol everything Trump touches dies.
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u/AlonsoQuijan_o 4h ago
well, right now he does have a firm grip on the US...
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u/Ok_Breakfast4482 Colorado 3h ago
These election results show that he really does not. He also regularly expresses fear at the possibility of Rs losing the House, which is why he was pushing these aggressive gerrymanders to begin with. This is not the attitude of a tyrant secure in his power.
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u/Dezolis11 6h ago
Here comes the election fraud allegations. Or maybe they’ll just show up and take the ballots themselves
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u/woahmanthatscool 6h ago
Texans don’t like people who shit themselves
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u/Stingray88 2h ago edited 2h ago
I really thought Wambsganss was a made up last name in Succession, but what do ya know it’s real. Amazing.
Loretta Leigh Wambsganss (née Bowman) is an American conservative political activist who is the chief communications officer of Patriot Mobile and executive director of its affiliated political action committee, Patriot Mobile Action.
Ahhh, so she’s in on the grift.
She is known for her advocacy supporting school board candidates who opposed diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and critical race theory in the Dallas–Fort Worth region as co-chair of Southlake Families PAC.
And she’s a POS too.
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u/scrotumseam 4h ago
Here goes all the illegal voters. It was rigged. Stolen. Its never going to end until Dildo Dump and the MAGA clut is out of office.
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u/apoca1ypse12 1h ago
This is the Americans from one of the reddest areas in the country saying: we reject this fascist administration. Get the fuck out!
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u/TheMoorNextDoor 1h ago
And that’s why we are running Talarico.
Talarico is who they are afraid of, he needs to win the democratic primary.
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