An incredible night for Democrats in Texas

[FarPoint]

An incredible night for Democrats in Texas

CLSB Politics

Two special elections that mean a lot for the future of Texas Democratic Politics.

In this video I look at the turnout and final conclusion of the of the U.S. Congress District 18 race. After not having any representation for over 300 days thanks to Greg Abbot, the seat now has an elected official. That wasn’t the only good news last night. In the State Senate Special Election in District 9 a huge upset happened, a 34-point swing to the Left for Democrats in Tarrant County. This is a canary in the coal mine for the Texas GOP.

[randr]

1. I hope this is indicative of the rest of the country

Imagine people getting their souls back along with a new spine.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. I have been active in Texas politics for a long time and I am still hoping that Texas will turn blue

I have been following some demographic trends for a while that would indicate that Texas should turn blue. Texas is getting older and more urban. Texas was more republican that these trends would indicate in 2024 in large part because Hispanics voted for trump and the GOP in larger numbers than what one would expect. I grew up in or near the Rio Grand Valley that went for trump. I was surprised by this result.

Last night was a great result in a state senate runoff race where a Democrat won a seat by 14 percentage points that trump won by 17 percentage points.

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If this swing was held up nationally, Texas would be blue as would the rest of the country

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This race was largely symbolic in that the next time the next time the Texas legis will be in session will be after the November elections and special elections are not necessarily representative of national/regular elections.

I am encouraged by the fact that Hispanic voters in SD 9 went for the Democrat.

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In Texas, there is a racist tradition called sundown towns where non-whites used to have to be out of the city limits by sundown or face lynching. Vidor Texas is one such city. The democrat in this race flipped a local sundown city in this race

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These results are encouraging to me. I still believe that Texas will turn blue. trump's alienation of Hispanic voters should continue given the current ICE operations.

[LessAspin]

3. GOP turnout was good

Reading that GOP voters actually turned out in big numbers.

Although hopefully in a harbinger of things to come a large percentage of those GOP voters switched to the Democrats.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. MaddowBlog-As Dems flip a red district in Texas, Trump tries to distance himself from his own failure

The president insisted that he wasn’t “involved” in a special election in the Fort Worth area. Reality suggests otherwise.

Step 1: Trump begs voters in the Fort Worth area to back a GOP candidate in a special election in a red district.

Step 2: The Dem wins by double digits.

Step 3: Trump pretends Step 1 didn’t happen. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-02T13:04:02.353Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/as-dems-flip-a-red-district-in-texas-trump-tries-to-distance-himself-from-his-own-failure

There was far greater interest, however, in a state Senate special election in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas. A New York Times report noted last week that Republican officials worried “that even a narrow G.O.P. victory … could be a bad sign for their midterm prospects.”

The results were far from a narrow GOP victory. MS NOW reported:

Democrats flipped a seat in the Texas Senate on Saturday when Democrat Taylor Rehmet won 57% of the vote in a special election for state Senate District 9.

Rehmet, a union leader and an Air Force veteran, won the seat for the Fort Worth-area district against Republican candidate Leigh Wambsganss.

On paper, this outcome seemed wholly implausible. Donald Trump won this district by 17 points in the 2024 elections; Wambsganss heavily outspent Rehmet; the district hasn’t been competitive in three decades; and state GOP leaders, such as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, went all out to help carry Wambsganss across the finish line in one of the nation’s largest Republican counties.

The Democratic candidate won by double digits anyway......

The outcome was obviously a difficult one for Wambsganss, the chief communications officer for Patriot Mobile, which describes itself as “America’s ONLY Christian conservative wireless provider.” But the results were also especially brutal for Donald Trump — though he was eager to pretend otherwise.

Reporter: A Democrat won a special election in Texas in an area that you won by 17 points

Trump: I’m not involved in that. That’s a local race. I don’t know anything about it. I had nothing to do with it.

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2026-02-01T17:45:31.133Z

......Literally one day earlier, the president published the latest in a series of messages to his social media platform that read, “Today is the day! To all Voters in Texas’ 9th State Senate District: GET OUT AND VOTE for a phenomenal Candidate, Leigh Wambsganss. She is a highly successful Entrepreneur, and an incredible supporter of our Movement to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. You can win this Election for Leigh, who has my Complete and Total Endorsement. POLLS CLOSE AT 7 P.M. GET OUT AND VOTE FOR LEIGH WAMBSGANSS! … Leigh will NEVER let Texas, or the USA, down!”

The day before that, he also reminded local voters that he considered Wambsganss “a GREAT Candidate” who enjoyed his “Complete and Total Endorsement.”

On Saturday night, Wambsganss lost by 14 points. On midday Sunday, Trump said of the race, “Somebody ran where?” adding, “I’m not involved with that.”

He was most definitely involved with that.