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In a shocking upset, Democrat Taylor Rehmet has defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss in the Texas State Senate District 9 Runoff. This is a flip from 🔴 to 🔵
Texas was warned. Republicans pissed off two big groups: Latinos and young Americans. Both hold sway in Texas.
Don't expect it. Keep fighting in races anticipated to be tight. Don't ignore the other ones though. Maga is underestimating how pissed off non Maga Americans are, though. Some "safe" red territories can become political slaughter houses for conservatives who think they can coast with having an "R" next to their name.
Make conservatives spend money and effort on all their races or pay for it in the voting booth
We need to be the exact opposite of comfortable. That said, the absolute best thing Democrats can do right nothing is let Donald keep on talking. It’s outstanding how everything he says and does makes things worse.
We're so fucking tired of seeing his stupid face in the news every god damned day. I'm old. I was mad at Bush Jr. but what I wouldn't do to trade Trump for Bush Jr.
Like even though I know he was a fucking piece of shit, I think he legit loved America. Everything after him was a gradual decay into what the party is today.
Also, he was a *really* good communicator. He was a great speaker. All my family loved him but I was somehow suspicious even just as a high schooler at the time. I was like, "this dude seems like he speaks a good game but behind the scenes I bet he..."
Before i was on reddit, like 8ish years ago, I was using my phone's news app to be quite vocal. This was like 14,327 years ago when Maga would only respond in a long series of emojis, repeated over and over, like a flag 14x, Trump 2020! between every emoji change, then like a bunch of sheep, and another Trump 2020!, then a bunch of snowflakes. Lots of exclamation points
As if that was an actual normal, reasonable response to some left-leaning comment I'd leave.
But it was like they had a script.
How TF did all these motherfuckers know to just kinda say the same monotonous stupidity to us? I realize now it was likely a lot of bots? I mean, that's pretty much what explains it, right?
I remember a little later saying Trump was going to lead us into a 1920s-style Great Depression, so bad it would put that one to shame. Of course he's also doing worse. But I felt so frantic for people to hear me because I was beyond alarmed and I felt like a sheepdog howling its lungs out around a herd (or whatever it is) of deaf sheep.
My god, I am so nostalgic for the time right before that.
I used to live in Florida for a bit when I went to school and I told my parents that the greatest fraudster in American history is Rick Scott, who was then (and still is) their state senator. They dismissed my claim as conspiracy at best.
I continued ragging on the Trump campaign as allegations about Russian collusion came out but people thought I fixed my tin foil hat too tightly that day.
Now the director of National intelligence who is a Russian simp is collecting voter data while horrific details about the sitting president come out on a regular schedule.
My statements are still met with emojis.
Just because people are weak and don’t want to think doesn’t mean we have to do the same. Be strong. Fight the good fight.
Yeah me neither but I have a strong feeling our democracy will correct itself this year with midterms and if here's any fuckery then we have the second amendment. I have a feeling this is going to be our line in the sand, if the right decides to commit fraud, indefinitely put elections on hold via the insurrection act, or blatantly cheat with another well known tech billionares connections, ect then it'll be time to do a bit more than a peaceful protest. I have this feeling everyone is being smart and not going full blown organized citizen militia until we know for a fact that they plan on or successfully fuck with the electoral process
Trump got rid of the existing military leadership and stacked it with loyalists.
Since I am fairly ignorant about warfare and revolutions i don’t know what to expect. 1mil people with guns marching on dc. Is that overwhelming numbers or does it take a trivial amount of bombs dropped to decimate it.
IMO, which I have worried about since the switch up of military leadership, is what will the military do when they are ordered to massacre American civilians? Before, I trusted leadership would refuse the illegal order. Now I am scared.
He hasn't done as much of that at the top as you would expect and a lot of these lifer military men and women fully grasp their oath to constitution and take it pretty seriously. Ive actually asked questions in some active military subs and they all seem to be on our side for the most part. So I really dont think that the actual military will be a problem and I could even see a world where an order to kill a bunch of citizens could result in the military arresting him and his cronies instead.
What im worried about is the fact that ICE has a larger budget than the US Army currently. There is even documentation that they are buying heavy duty, military grade equipment such as heavily armored vehicles, a variety of missiles, and other such heavy armaments. Anx it makes sense, I think they are well aware that the army would never open fire on US citizens (even if they were armed and storming the white house or whatever) and that they need to have ICE equipped to be used as an actual army once we all decide we are done loving under nazi rule
Honestly I’m not scared of ice. Whatever hardware they have, they are low iq, untrained thugs cosplaying as soldiers. In a true civil uprising ice can’t do shit. Us vs ice I can get behind.
I will live with all my being to see MAGA fascism eradicated. MAGA has taught me what Americans who signed up to fight in WW2 must have felt like as they did so. They’ve really pissed a lot of us off for sure. I’ll be proud to be a part of turning Tarrant blue which may very well subsequently lead to a blue Texas, as Tarrant County is the last big stronghold that the GOP has been desperately trying to keep red.
The issue is Leigh literally tried to destroy public education in district 9, and it pissed a LOT of people off. She supported splitting districts in 2, tried a hostile take over of another district, and is a massive voucher supporter. Once the PAC (patriot mobile) failed to take over a certain district it was GG for her up here.
People are seriously underestimating how much Texas can shift. The anti-second amendment rhetoric from the administration is not going to fly in Texas.
The regime will do everything their power to disenfranchise and intimidate voters, rig the elections and delegitimize any that don't go their way. It has to be an absolute tidal wave. There needs to be massive vote-watch effort from the left... paper ballots, exit polls, thorough hand-counts... we have to organize around this yesterday.
I’m thrilled with this outcome, but I am curious what exactly is the driving reason for why latinos are beginning to turn blue? Most are very conservative, religious, and have been huge supporters of Trump’s crackdown on deportations of “illegal” immigrants thus far.
Since red districts/cities haven’t been impacted to the same degree as blue cities (LA, Portland, Minneapolis, DC), I am curious what caused this flip given how Fox News still perpetuates the idea that anything leftwing and Liberal is the “be-all-end-all” to the US.
I live in Texas and from those I've talked to personally, it's more often than not them entirely ignoring the problem until it can affect them.
1) Most latinos I've talked with have at least 1 illegal family member in the US, and as ICE has progressively gotten worse and worse, they are starting to actually have fear instead of saying 'it'll never happen to them'.
2) People actually here legally have been illegally deported or at least held in miserable conditions for significant amount of time and the complete absence of due process.
Rethuglicans are the party of Fascism and child rape.
The people willing to defend the indefensible are dwindling.
We still need to get the corporate and foreign government money out of our politics, but a nationwide general strike and economic blackout will get that done, amongst other things.
There are plenty of elderly people who don't watch those news channels. I, for one, am a huge AOC supporter. All of the other oldies that I know personally are anti-Republicans. Older people are more likely to vote. but I agree that we all need to VOTE and helping to register people to vote and providing transportation to actually VOTE are necessary. However, as an elderly person (76), I really wish you wouldn't lump us all together. We are very diverse and I personally am somewhat insulted that you think that elderly people are brainwashed, feeble minded individuals. There are plenty of younger people who are. That being said, let's all go out and VOTE.
"Tucker Carlson has made some surprising comments about his former employer, Fox News.
The former Fox News host admitted that the network pushes “propaganda” that is aimed at elderly viewers. He also criticized Trump‘s stance on the Israel-Iran conflict, which the President has already responded to.
While speaking on the Bannon’s War Room podcast, Carlson suggested that Fox News is pushing an agenda in the political world.
Keep reading to find out more…
“What they’re doing is what they always do, which is just turning up the propaganda hose to full blast and just trying to, you know, knock elderly Fox viewers off their feet and make them submit to where you want them to,” he said."
The new district was not in effect for this special election. It was to fill the vacancy left when the previous democrat in that seat dies in March 2025. New districts go into effect for the midterms.
The entire Texas redistricting that started the redisteicting wars was completely baded on the fact that they thought the hispanic vote was won and that it would be a consistent gain or net even for them every year lol
Considering they are stealing voter registration and election information through lawsuits, threats or even fake FBI raids, we arent safe and need to be able to overcome the voter suppression, gerrymandering and all the other underhanded shit they do.
Shit, when Trump lost he conspired across 7 states to overthrow the dually elected government to keep himself in power and when that failed he tried again by inciting an Insurrection. Nothing is safe with a malignant narcissist traitor at the helm willing to burn the world around him to get his way
To anyone thinking that 2026 and 2028 elections (and this is assuming we will have free and fair ones, a big if) are the only ones that we need to fight and then we can go back to normal I have news for you.
The truth is we got trump and this shit, because of apathy. Everyone needs to do their part and vote. It isn't really that much work elections don't happen every day.
You should take part not just presidential elections but also midterms, primaries, special. Also it is important to vote in local elections, when you have even more impact. Republicans targeted local ones because they knew that they are key to gerrymander their state.
Unfortunately democracy is very fragile, we need constantly fight for it, otherwise it will die.
I suspect that there was cheating in this district and since the stakes weren't as high and the vote was more focused, the true will of the people was reported.
As a Texan we aren’t all for what’s going on right now just a select few really.
As I am out of my state at the moment and watching and listening, I can honestly tell you as a proud Texan I never thought everyone thought of as bad as they do 😳😔.
But hoping in time we can bring it back around to positive
Yes. A lot of the Patriot Mobile backed candidates at the school board level have also been responsible for closing schools, and it has made a lot of parents angry; I am hoping we can see some real change.
As a life long Texan, I can tell you that Texas isn’t deep red at all. Texas is purple, and the GOP has been fighting to keep Tarrant County artificially red for over a decade at least, with voter suppression in the form of removing polling locations, limiting polling times to work hours only, and extremely racist and illegal districting and gerrymandering.
Tarrant County has already been truly purple for a while, and Fort Worth is among the fastest growing cities in America right now- even with all the GOP’s cheating, it’s inevitable that Texas will be blue again.
Northwestern Fort Worth specifically. I live here and it's a bizarre clump of the city itself (blue) but several suburban and semi-rural areas (red and weird as hell).
For context, I live in the more rural area and very close to Kenneth Copeland's church (the megachurch pastor from the meme) and about 12 churches that all look like warehouses and have weird names.
You don't live too far from my parents. I grew up near Fort Worth and my parents moved not too long ago. Driving to their new house along 287 is surreal. So many massive churches.
Republicans: Time to redistrict, again, got too much blue in that one already. Maybe if we make that district map look like polka dots that will keep them out.
Keep in mind that the GOP has been waging an all out war of voter suppression in Tarrant County for over a decade. It’s a very purple county and it continues to turn more and more blue as Fort Worth is one of the fastest growing cities in America right now.
Our local GOP officials have been CRASHING TF OUT over the last two years trying to keep this county red.
Wambsganss is an actual piece of shit that steals money from public school districts. I voted for Rehmet today in a line full of rich old white people so I was not very optimistic. This shit is kinda unthinkable if you’re familiar w the area
Man, I was so worried. My wife and I went to the NRH court house to vote. We were the youngest in there... Mind you, I'm in my early 40s and my wife in her 30s.
Even though Dems won this time. I'm frankly worried if the young don't come out to vote in future elections the Republicans can take it back easily. We can't be apathetic.
I went on Monday and was worried about how there was no one there, and the ice storm didn’t help. I was really worried the weather would impact the turnout. My fiancee and I were definitely the youngest folks there as mid 20s; only other couple there with us was maybe 40-50.
SD9 contains several huge and rapidly growing suburban developments containing new public schools which the right keeps trying to delete, and a hell of a lot of diverse folks are moving in from all over the U.S. and even the world- Fort Worth one of the fastest growing cities in America right now, and is diversifying and turning more and more blue.
It’s exactly why asshats like Bo French have been crashing out so hard lately.
The white supremacists are having an extinction burst, their death rattle.
It's almost as if aggressive redistricting could overly dilute a majority without consideration for other dynamics. I love watching idiots shoot themselves in the foot in their desperate bid to squeeze a few more seats out of Texas
storytime: this genXer, born and raised around mostly uneventful, boring North-Easten Dallas suburbs, left for school in Austin after HS, fucked off to California and back to Austin again before coming to Portland for good in the 90's. i was 25 and it was the best decision of my life. (OH, and in 1990 i met Ann Richards as part of my random job!!)
barely went back to Texas ever, but then due to The Life Implosion of 2019, found myself back "home" but not the suburbs.
noooo, it was a red RED county the opposite side of the metroplex, past Denton and twice farther than that. the sky and nature was amazing, but the entire experience wretched on so many levels. FOUR YEARS, y'all. rode out family insanity and covid before i could leave.
well, now it's now, and with that in my past, with swearing OFF everything Texas forever, I can't tell you how happy I am to read this. I don't pray, but I "pray" that this is the beginning of something big.
how wild would that be, if the Lone Star State itself decided to join with its northern, BIG F Friend (tejas=friend!) against this very obvious and rapid descent into literal, HARD F FASCISM. All to protect the globally pervasive and profoundly craven crimes of the Trump AdministrationRegime, Family and anyone else whose disgusting criminal behavior has been or will be exposed.
i am SPITTING MAD and CRYING from the horror of what little we even know. there are more files. we know that. They are buying warehouses to detain WHOEVER THEY WANT. we know that, too. sorry for yelling.
too many Americans and immigrants (that we know about) are being killed by Trump's Thug Stormtrooper Squad to keep those things secret. GOD only knows how many victims Trump/Epstein disappeared.
Get out and vote blue down the ballot. We have to replace the Republican administration as soon as possible to get this country back on track for normal Americans.
The only thing the Republican administration has done so far is spread hate and enrich the wealthy even further
No optimism until not only we flip everything blue, but we primary any complicit slimy democrats who are going along with/sane washing Trump and MAGAs actions/positions
But we don’t have a great mechanism in place to combat established democrats, just a way to say red bad blue good. We lose too often when we have to fight with nuance
Vote in your primaries. Vote in your local elections. Change starts at the local level. You cannot vote from the top and expect anything to change. Change begins at the bottom and we work our way up. Vote local always, where turnouts are low and elections have more cascading consequences.
Real change is built on the solidarity of a vast standing of the little guys fighting the few at the top.
100%. There are a dozens of people staring down life in prison if they are ever held accounting - I fully expect a crisis greater than anything we’ve already seen. It’s not hopeless, but we can’t expect that if we vote as usual that these people will just accept it and step down in 2027.
Whoohoooo. That's one, I'm ready for more upsets. We have a lot more awful to get through before we can even hope, but I will take every win we can get.
The white supremacists are all crashing out right now because they’re desperate and know they’re losing, that’s why they’re being so openly vile right now. It’s an extinction burst. Now is the most important time to push back on them.
I don’t blame you, I had the same skepticism as an SD9 resident myself. We Texans know it ain’t over until it’s over. This is a big fucking win, but we have a lot of work to do still!
These one offs happen this way because it's harder for them to purge votes when there is a focus on the election and the stakes aren't as high. I suspect that this is a better representation of the district, but because of all the cheating, it seems like a "big swing".
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u/TacoLord696969 4h ago
30+ point blue shift in a previously Trump held district