A large swath of Tarrant County will decide its next Texas senator in a Jan. 31 runoff, after a tight three-person special election that saw the lone Democrat take an unexpected lead.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced the runoff date Monday afternoon. Senate District 9 candidates will share the date with several other special elections happening across the state.
Voters will decide between Fort Worth Democrat Taylor Rehmet and Southlake Republican Leigh Wambsganss, neither of whom claimed over 50% of the vote in the Nov. 4 election.
Whoever wins Jan. 31 will be up for reelection later that year — first in the May 2026 primaries, then in the November 2026 midterms. The special election winner is to serve the last 11 months of Kelly Hancock’s term, after the former senator resigned to become acting state comptroller.
Early voting begins Jan. 21. When it’s available, information on where and how to vote will be on Tarrant County’s election website.
Rehmet, an Air Force veteran and union organizer, led with 47.57% of early votes, while Wambsganss, chief communications officer for the Patriot Mobile wireless service provider, received 35.94%.
Rehmet’s near-victory was unexpected by many, as the seat has been held by Republicans since 1991. The Democrat’s two Republican opponents, Wambsganss and former Southlake Mayor John Huffman, spent a bulk of their campaigns attacking each other as fake or insincere conservatives.
Rehmet ran a relatively low-budget campaign of about $120,000 raised from July to late October, compared to Wambsganss’ raised budgets of $1.6 million. The Democrat’s campaign emphasizes workers’ rights and is funded mostly by unions and small individual donations. Several Democratic lawmakers made donations in the $1,000 range.
“When you talk with people instead of at them, when you organize block by block instead of begging billionaires for checks, when you fight like hell for working families because you are one, this is what happens,” Rehmet said in a statement after the election results.
Wambsganss, who described herself as “ultra-MAGA” and is running on issues including tax cuts and gun rights, has a campaign largely bankrolled by Republican billionaires.
“The conservative voters of SD9 have spoken clearly and distinctly. They want to send a conservative patriot to Austin to represent them,” Wambsganss said in an election night statement.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601.
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