# Leigh Wambsganss Republican politician in [[Tarrant County]], Texas, and the party's nominee in the [[Texas Senate District 9 Special Election]] — the race she lost to Democrat [[Taylor Rehmet]] on January 31, 2026 despite outspending him by roughly $2 million and holding endorsements from both [[Greg Abbott]] and [[Donald Trump]]. ## Patriot Mobile Wambsganss came to prominence through [[Patriot Mobile]], the Texas-based self-described Christian conservative wireless company, as executive director of its political arm, Patriot Mobile Action. That PAC spent more than $500,000 on Tarrant County school board races in May 2022 and swept its slate into office in Keller ISD, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, Mansfield ISD, and Carroll ISD — one of the more consequential local demonstrations that a corporate-adjacent PAC could capture a metropolitan county's school governance in a single cycle. See [[Book Banning Timeline]] for the downstream effects. ## The SD-9 races She finished second in the November 4, 2025 first round with 35.94% behind Rehmet's 47.57%, with fellow Republican John Huffman taking 16.49% — a split that forced the runoff. In the January 31, 2026 runoff she lost 42.73% to 57.27%. The defeat carried outsized meaning precisely because of the resources behind it: she raised more than $2.5 million, entered runoff day with $310,000 cash on hand against Rehmet's none, and had the president and the governor campaigning for her in a district Trump had won by 17 points. She is the Republican nominee for the seat again in the November 2026 general election, unopposed in the March primary. ## See also - [[Texas Senate District 9 Special Election]] - [[Taylor Rehmet]] - [[Patriot Mobile]] - [[Tarrant County]]