# Taylor Rehmet Democratic member of the Texas Senate representing District 9 in northern [[Tarrant County]], sworn in **February 19, 2026** after winning a special-election runoff that flipped a seat Republicans had held since 1991. ## Background Rehmet served four years of active duty in the U.S. Air Force working on electrical and environmental systems at Minot Air Force Base. He is an aircraft mechanic at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth plant and president of his International Association of Machinists local, as well as of the union's Texas state council — an unusually direct labor résumé for a Texas legislator, and one his campaign foregrounded. ## The 2025-2026 special election Rehmet led the first round on November 4, 2025 with 47.57%, short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff, then defeated Republican [[Leigh Wambsganss]] on January 31, 2026 with 57.27% to 42.73%. He was outspent by roughly $2 million and entered runoff day with no cash on hand. [[Donald Trump]] had carried the district by about 17 points in 2024; the swing toward Democrats was roughly 31 points. Full detail, including the disputed swing and spending figures, is at [[Texas Senate District 9 Special Election]]. ## Significance Rehmet serves the remainder of Kelly Hancock's unexpired term and, because the Texas Legislature holds no regular session until 2027, casts no floor votes in it. His importance to the 2026 cycle is therefore as evidence rather than as a legislator: his win is the most-cited case for the argument that Republican [[Mid-Decade Redistricting]] in Texas produced a [[Dummymander]] by assuming the durability of 2024's gains among young, Hispanic, and working-class voters. He faces Wambsganss again in the November 2026 general election. ## See also - [[Texas Senate District 9 Special Election]] - [[Leigh Wambsganss]] - [[Tarrant County]] - [[2026 Midterm Elections]]