# Texas Senate District 9 Special Election A two-round special election for a Texas state Senate seat in northern [[Tarrant County]] that Democrat [[Taylor Rehmet]] won on **January 31, 2026**, flipping a district [[Donald Trump]] had carried by roughly 17 points in 2024. The result became the single most-cited data point in the argument that the 2024 Republican coalition had already dissolved — and that the [[Mid-Decade Redistricting]] gambit built on that coalition's durability was a [[Dummymander]]. ## Why the seat was open Republican Kelly Hancock, who had held SD-9 since 2013, resigned on **June 18, 2025** to become acting Texas Comptroller. The seat covers north and west Tarrant County — Keller, North Richland Hills, Hurst, Southlake, and roughly half of Fort Worth — and had been in Republican hands since 1991. ## The two rounds | Round | Date | Result | |---|---|---| | First round | November 4, 2025 | Rehmet (D) 47.57%; [[Leigh Wambsganss]] (R) 35.94%; John Huffman (R) 16.49%. No majority, so a runoff was triggered. Turnout 17.39% | | Runoff | January 31, 2026 | **Rehmet 54,473 (57.27%); Wambsganss 40,648 (42.73%)**. Margin 13,825 votes. Turnout 15.41% | Rehmet was sworn in on **February 19, 2026**, serving only the remainder of Hancock's term. Because no regular legislative session convenes until 2027, he serves no active legislative days in the seat. He and Wambsganss meet again in the November 2026 general election; both were unopposed in the March primary. > [!note] Two margins, both correct > The certified canvass yields a **14.5-point** margin (57.27–42.73). The widely quoted **14.4** figure is the election-night unofficial number (57.2–42.8). Sources using either are not in conflict. ## The swing, and what it was read to mean Against Trump's 2024 performance in the district, the swing toward Democrats was roughly **31 points**; [[G. Elliott Morris]] of *[[Strength In Numbers]]* computed **31.4**, which he described as rounding to 32 once minor-party candidates are excluded. Most outlets reported "roughly 31." > [!warning] Single-source figure > The **32-point** version of the swing — the number [[Heather Cox Richardson]] and several commentators used — traces to Morris alone, as the only analyst computing the minor-party-excluded figure. The ~31-point raw swing is multiply sourced. The reading that gained traction was demographic rather than merely partisan. Republican consultant Mike Madrid, speaking to *Politico* after the race, tied the result directly to the newly drawn congressional maps: the party had staked several new seats on young Hispanic men, a group that had moved toward Trump in 2024 and moved sharply away after the administration's arrest, detention, and deportation campaign. Morris had separately found that Republicans had shed an average of 25 points of support among the young, nonwhite, and lower-income voters the 2024 coalition depended on. ## The money Wambsganss was the overwhelming financial favorite and lost anyway, which is much of why the race drew national attention. - Wambsganss outspent Rehmet's **$242,174** by about **$2 million** across the campaign, raising more than $2.5 million in total. - Entering runoff day, Rehmet had **no cash on hand**; Wambsganss had **$310,000**. - Both [[Greg Abbott]] and [[Donald Trump]] publicly endorsed Wambsganss, Trump via Truth Social get-out-the-vote posts in the closing days. > [!warning] Two figures commonly misreported > Secondary accounts have rendered the spending gap as **$2.2 million** (it was about $2.0 million) and have described Wambsganss as having *spent* $310,000 in the final days while Rehmet *spent nothing*. The $310,000 was **cash on hand**, not spending, and Rehmet spent roughly $70,000 in the January 1–21 period. Corrected against Texas Tribune and Fort Worth Report reporting, 2026-09-03. ## Complications Winter Storm Fern closed polls on January 25 and disrupted early voting January 23–27, compressing the runoff's early-vote window. Runoff turnout (about 95,000 ballots) ran below the November round (about 119,000) and far below the 277,298 cast in the district in the 2024 presidential election — the usual caution about reading a low-turnout special election as a general-election forecast applies. ## Aftermath in Tarrant County Seven months later, the Republican majority on the Tarrant County Commissioners Court voted to eliminate 92 Election Day polling sites ahead of the November 2026 midterm — see [[Tarrant County Polling Site Reduction]]. The post-flip Texas Senate stood at 18 Republicans and 12 Democrats. ## See also - [[Taylor Rehmet]] - [[Leigh Wambsganss]] - [[Tarrant County]] - [[Tarrant County Polling Site Reduction]] - [[Dummymander]] - [[Mid-Decade Redistricting]] - [[Redistricting Timeline 2025-2026]] - [[2026 Midterm Elections]]