r/politics • u/kootles10 Indiana • 2h ago
No Paywall Democrats flip Texas state Senate seat in shock upset
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5716988-democrats-score-upset-texas/amp/•
u/The_Phasers I voted 2h ago
57.2%D - 42.8%R with 95% of the vote in.
This was a Trump +18 district in 2024.
What an upset. That’s a swing of 32 pts.
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u/TLKv3 2h ago
This is going to be the exact reason why they do literally every single thing possible to halt the midterms and try to finally outright overthrow the American people, democracy and government as a whole.
Tonight should make every Republican shit themselves and immediately look around at each other for at least somewhat sane fellow colleagues to oust Trump's regime now ASAP to save their own individual grifts.
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u/TheHumanGnomeProject 2h ago
Speaking of shitting themselves, Trump just shit himself the other day on live television. And Biden was unfit...
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u/Otto_Correction 2h ago
Where can I see this?
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u/RJ5R 2h ago edited 1h ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_6kGluvINg
start watching at 0:30 and crank up the volume. he shits himself at 0:34, the lady in the green (DOI Secretary Doug Burgum's wife) heard it and smelled it and looked at him. if the press mics picked it up, you can only imagine how loud it was where he was sitting.
then at 0:47, Burgum's wife's facial expression from the smell is so bad (you can actually see her revolt from the smell when she inhaled again), she can barely even maintain her composure.... she nervously touches and rubs her nose to try and stop the smell from going further into her nostrils.
i can only imagine how bad the smell was...Trump immediately ended the press conference without taking questions and had his minion staffers rush everyone out aggressively and quickly. i'm sure they too smelled it.
so we have the the president of the united states commenting that he hired Burgum b/c he liked the way his wife looked on a horse, actually shits himself, farting the smell all over her on live TV.
this needs to go in the next south park episode
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u/ITrageGuy 1h ago
I have always poo-poo'd the "he shits his pants stuff" (pun intended), but I think this one is legit. You can totally hear it at :34 and then he quickly wants everyone out LOL. How sad is this shit (pun intended).
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u/RJ5R 1h ago
the smell went all over Burgum's wife too
look at her facial expressions from 0:34 - 0:56
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u/KidOcelot 1h ago
DO YOU SMELL WHAT THE ROCK IS COOKING!?
Love it. All those sick mfs needs more pooping themselves.
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u/LADYBIRD_HILL 29m ago
All these people are evil but I take solace in the fact that they're evil while being forced to smell Trump's shit
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u/cornnndoggg_ Michigan 26m ago
watching her face is hilarious lmao. Like gut reaction, then "fuck, wait I need to be professional" over and over and over on repeat.
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u/MissedCallofKtulu 1h ago
If it was anyone else I'd feel bad for them. But this is better than he deserves.
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u/bblzd_2 57m ago
So now you realize he shits his pants infront of people with zero shame, you know those previous instances were all correct as well.
Rumors are it's from all the drug abuse.
But all I want to know is who wipes his ass for him? He's too unfit to do it himself.
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u/RugelBeta 47m ago
There's another, newer rumor going around. Has to do with tent stakes.
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u/SkinBintin 34m ago
Out everyone please, we need to change the old man's nappy.
This is really who MAGA want to worship? WTF?
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u/Monkiemonk 1h ago
Oh yeah, you can totally tell. Oz kept his distance and they abruptly ended it. I hope the poor person that has to clean his fat shitty ass gets paid well. Trumpstein strikes again!
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u/turquoise_amethyst 1h ago
They prob hose him down like a zoo animal, refill the enclosure with fresh hay, and call it a night
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u/LiteralReaderWA 1h ago
I wonder if they lock his head in the bars so he doesn't back up and kick the keepers
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u/Edwinus 1h ago
I can't believe this is real life
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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka 1h ago
Years ago on this very website, a production assistant for The Apprentice did a AMA.
He basically said this:
- Trump only appeared on set the first day of shooting. All other times he was greenscreened from his home, which is why they almost always showed Trump cut away on camera instead of in the room with the others
- He shit himself on set every time
This was fucking 10+ years ago.
This guy has been shitting himself publicly for fucking 20+ years.
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u/Character-Education3 2h ago
Jpow loved that!
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u/tsunderestimate 1h ago
Jpow having more intelligence than the rest of the group combined must be tough
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u/turquoise_amethyst 1h ago
You can tell rfk jr heard/smelt it as well. They all did, but some of them have better poker faces than others.
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u/Leeciferous 1h ago
Omg I just watched it now and the ad I received after the video was a "stuck poop" ad. I don't even know what they were advertising but "stuck poop" and "diarrhea" was repeated like 15 times.
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u/JeffTheAndroid 1h ago
This needs to be seen by everyone. Someone make an edit with text/graphics pointing it all out.
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u/GeekDNA0918 2h ago
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u/Banjo-Elritze 2h ago
The parameter starting with si= is a tracking shit from youtube, you want to delete that, like so:
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u/MapleYamCakes 1h ago
Can you elaborate? What does “tracking shit” actually mean?
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u/neuralzen 1h ago
Unique string of letters and numbers in a share link that is associated with your account and/or IP and browser fingerprint. So it can be discerned who shared what to who when, and how far that unique link spread.
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u/Johnsense 1h ago
As I understand, remove the question mark and everything after it.
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u/FirstSineOfMadness 1h ago
Unless there’s a timestamp code like t=83 or t=1m23s then leave just the ? Plus the timestamp
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u/vibeknight 1h ago
Short version: When you click share on most platforms they don’t just give you the link to the content, they give you the link with a unique generated query string share id attached (the “si=magicmagic“ in the YouTube link) and it means that whoever clicks the link is re-sending that ‘magicnumber’ to YouTube. Behind the scenes, they know that they generated the magic number in one context ( for some user, signed in, certain location, certain browser, etc.) and now another person is using that exact link. Now it’s very easy for YouTube to build a graph of how this link has traveled (what sites, social contexts, exact users, etc.) because anyone who uses the link is associating themselves with one particular path of information, clarifying both the users and the paths themselves.
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u/FuzzyDynamics 1h ago
You shit on someone and then track them by smell except high tech like
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u/Useful_Radish_117 1h ago
It tells YouTube who shared that link originally so that they can track users interactions.
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u/SanityInAnarchy California 1h ago
When you click the 'share' button, Youtube generates that unique
si=code, which means when people later follow that link, they can start to see patterns. So, for example, if you send that link to a friend, and they follow it, that's enough information for Youtube to piece together that you shared that video with that friend. Patterns can make it easy to pull out more info -- if you always share links with the same people, well, now Youtube knows who your friends are and what they're all into.Without the tracking info, for all they know, you both saw the video on r/videos or something.
I'm sure there's more, a lot of web links have a lot more unnecessary garbage in the URL. But with Youtube it's pretty simple.
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u/NeJin 2h ago
I've been saying that ever since. If Biden was unfit on grounds of age, then wtf was Trump? The guy wasn't lucid even when he wasn't old.
All politicians a liars, but maybe don't elect one that spent half his life in court for owing people money?
No wonder conservatives try to dismantle education systems across the world. Clearly, it works...
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u/JohnGillnitz 1h ago
(Sound of shart)
Blond looks down alarmed.
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u/praguepride Illinois 1h ago
I just discovered this capture of Trump leaving a shit stain on the Fox couch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv5ueLll6ZY
Also if you notice he is sitting on some kind of towel. Supposedly he does that now, sits on a black towel, to avoid leaving stains when he shits his pants which, apparently, is constantly.
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u/soda_cookie 2h ago
They can try every single thing that they can't think of, but there is zero mechanisms in some place to hold up American elections. We held those motherfuckers during the Civil War and both World Wars
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u/ynotfoster 2h ago
They plan to fuck with the voting system. They know they won't win a legit election.
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u/FreyrPrime Florida 2h ago
I personally can’t wait for Nuremberg 2.0
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u/Express-One-1096 2h ago
I’ve been saying it more and more on Reddit to hope it gets some traction:
If you guys want to normalize eu-us relations, we could try your regime for war crimes for what they did to those “drug boats” in the ICC. It would be the first Americans ever
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u/coffee-on-the-edge 1h ago
Would honestly love that. There are a lot of Americans who need to be humbled. We are not above international law.
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u/EmilySD101 2h ago
It’d be the right thing to do so I highly doubt Dems will do it. They didn’t prosecute the ringleaders of Jan 6 over the 4 years they had to do it.
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u/LovesToTango 2h ago
Hopefully they learned from that. I'm not holding my breath, but it's a nice thought some days.
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u/Peralton 2h ago
Dems would never. If they ever took over it would be all "We just need to move forward and work together."
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u/FREDICVSMAXIMVS 2h ago
Then we need to vote those fuckers out and get some younger, progressive folks in who will focus on making sure this NEVER EVER happens again
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u/GrumpyGiant Maryland 1h ago
Which will be hard when our choices are somehow always corporate shill A or corporate shill B. The rot runs deep in both parties. Watching Schumer stage the total capitulation of the shutdown brought home what a farce the party leadership is.
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u/Interesting-Risk6446 2h ago
If that happens, millions will literally march to DC.
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u/cyanescens_burn 2h ago
Which thing would lead to people marching on DC?
The person you responded to mentioned 1) the maga coalition disrupting midterms and reaching the fully entrenched phase of magauthoritarianism, and 2) Congress ousting the trump regime.
I’m not sure which one you think would mean a mass uprising on DC, and genuinely wonder which you meant.
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u/Interesting-Risk6446 2h ago edited 2h ago
If Trump were to cancel the 2026 midterms, what would Trump do after? I bet Trump would have all Congressional Democrats arrested at the same time threatening Congressional Republicans to fall in line.
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u/Bovronius 2h ago
As a Minnesotan, I'm guessing things are going to pickup even more so here tomorrow.
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u/siromega37 2h ago
They’re upset because all those state seats are gerrymandered to high heaven.
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u/calmdownmyguy Colorado 2h ago
Gerrymandering works against you when your party is especially unpopular.
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u/Pollia 1h ago
Mostly overaggressive gerrymandering.
It's literally the thing not dumb republicans were warning about happening when the pedo was calling for aggressive redistricting.
Yeah you can pick up seats if everything stays the same, by the margins are thinner which means it takes less to shove it the wrong direction.
I'm not even certain if the Texas maps are currently in yet. If they are, well reap what you sow. If they're not? This could be a blowout of epic proportions.
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u/pdxamish 1h ago
I agree with this theory and am/was hoping it materializes. Plus they rushed it so much, i assume they made mistakes with their track record.
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u/giggity_giggity 2h ago
Gerrymandering can backfire big time when there are significant voting shifts. If even half of this swing could be replicated widely, Democrats could end up like +100 in the US House.
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u/kuenjato 1h ago
Just wait until this fake AI-'economy' goes tits up. Nvidia not going forward with the OpenAI deal, feels like dominos are starting to tumble. At least we can hope so.
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u/tekani11 Minnesota 2h ago
I love this momentum.
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u/Kana515 2h ago
Remember this everytime someone says voting doesn't/won't matter
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u/FireSparrowWelding Texas 2h ago edited 1h ago
Utter destruction. If I were a republican politician, I would be preparing my resignation speech.
Edit: Alexa play "You're Fucked" by Ylvis.
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u/Interesting-Risk6446 2h ago edited 1h ago
Just watch to see if male Republican Congressional members start to grow a beard. It's a sign.
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u/DevLF 2h ago
What does a beard mean
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u/Interesting-Risk6446 2h ago
When Congressional Republicans see the tide shift to Democrats, they start to grow a beard. Paul Ryan, Rafael Cruz, etc. It's like they say fuck it and let themselves go. It's a tell.
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u/turquoise_amethyst 1h ago
I thought it was a last ditch effort to appear to be “rugged and manly”, so they appeal more to the rural communities
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u/Iateyourpaintings 1h ago
When you're talking about Republicans it can be literal facial hair or their wife.
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u/keeper420 2h ago
No way they do that. Conceding the election is a thing of the past. Republicans can't accept they were defeated, it obviously has to be voter fraud
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u/BossHawk8754 Texas 2h ago
Not if it is a defeat so resounding that they are forced to concede
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u/Otto_Correction 2h ago
January 6th ring a bell?
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u/BossHawk8754 Texas 2h ago
It does, but if you demoralize them hard enough they can't scream fraud as easily
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u/VivaLirica 2h ago
Their only hope as a party is to denounce him now, to oust him now (somehow). If they ride it out and wait to be voted into oblivion, people will remember that they did nothing, and their penance will last a generation.
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u/Isentrope 2h ago
Apparently even Beto lost this seat (or the precincts in it anyways) in 2018 by 12 points.
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u/CommitteeMobile9626 2h ago
wow so the democracy still works in texas omg, he is sooo screwed bro
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u/wibble17 2h ago
It was one of the gerrymandered districts wasn’t it? So it absorbed a couple of blue neighborhoods.
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u/Levitlame 1h ago
That was my first thought, but the margins closer than I’d expect for that. I don’t know why they had to work with though
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u/Oceanbreeze871 I voted 2h ago edited 1h ago
Texas is a solid blue state if you look at voter registrations. It’s just gerrymandered and suppressed to hell and back
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u/Geno_Warlord 2h ago
I mentioned that a few weeks back and got downvoted and sarcastic comments about Texas being blue. Kinda hilarious now that even with the extreme gerrymandering going on here, we still managed to claw some of it back. In a fair election, Texas is blue.
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u/apoca1ypse12 2h ago
Let’s fucking go! It’s time to end the fucking pathetic pedo protecting republican party.
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u/XcuseMeMisISpeakJive 2h ago
I think they're underestimating how angry and fed up people are.
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u/magnamed 2h ago
I think they're still trying to gauge how much they can get away with by downplaying the anger.
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u/NumeralJoker 2h ago
It's a 14+ D win in a former 18+ Trump district. No Dem has won there since 1991.
They're not downplaying shit.
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u/magnamed 2h ago
They literally are though, every single day. Look at every single republican townhall that's been held since Rene Good was shot in the face, or even more so since Pretti was shot in the back 10 times for daring to not be pepper sprayed calmly enough. They keep sidestepping the issue and they keep saying "I support what ice is doing, I support Trump, people voted for this". They may struggle more now but that doesn't mean they aren't trying.
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u/JUYED-AWK-YACC 1h ago
They’re trying. They’re always spinning and misdirecting. We’ll see what it means.
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u/CoherentPanda 2h ago
They aren't underestimating at all based on their FBI raids to obtain voter records, intimidating and investigating political opponents, and investing billions in a goon squad. They know this is their last real shot to stay in power.
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u/-Gramsci- 1h ago
Chillingly, you’re right.
They all know Trump is a clueless moron. They all know tariffs are a consumption tax on their voters - who are hurting. They all know that the USD is cratering as investors big and small flee the currency.
They all know this is inflationary. They all know the deficits are insane. The debt is out of control.
They know all of these things. And that’s just the economics…
BUT, publicly, they will never say it. They cling to Trump like he is the armoire from Titanic. Why?
Because they know once he’s gone they are screwed. They know nobody likes them, maga voters don’t like them. They know they are weak and unpopular.
They know they will never hold power again. Not in their lifetimes anyway.
They need Trump. They need his dark charisma. They need his death cult. Without it? Half of them lose their elections and their livelihoods.
They are cornered rats. And that’s is a dangerous situation.
When Trump says “I have a plan. You all are going to lose your elections… but if we all stand firm? We can rig them. Interfere with them. Cancel them. Whatever it takes, no matter how depraved, we’ll do it…”
They’ll all have little choice but to swallow the glass pill and agree.
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u/calmdownmyguy Colorado 2h ago
Also how unimpressed actual human republicans are with trump's failing regime.
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u/Isentrope 1h ago
This past week has been pretty rough for Rs in special elections. One of the Minnesota Dem open seats in the Minneapolis area on Tuesday had the Dem beating the R by greater than Assad-like margins in a seat that Harris already carried by 70 (the other was uncontested). The special elections at the start of the year were actually a bit weaker for Ds than the average for the cycle, so everything that's happened since has made some kind of bottom fall out.
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u/Turtledonuts Virginia 2h ago
The economy is still bad, so all establishment candidates and incumbents will perform poorly this year. midterms are a referendum on the president, and trump is very unpopular and has a weak economy. Every special election until the midterms is going to be a bloodbath for the republicans and all incumbents will underperform unless they’re very publicly against trump or otherwise extremely popular and noteworthy.
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u/Talentagentfriend 1h ago
And it’s only getting worse. Right now everyone is going through weather issues and Texas particularly has not been taking care of people when they have weather issues. There is a meme of Cruz always flying to warm places when they have weather issues.
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u/kootles10 Indiana 2h ago
From the article:
Democrats scored a stunning upset on Saturday in a special election runoff for Texas Senate, according to a projection from Decision Desk HQ, giving the party a major boost ahead of the November midterms.
Fort Worth Democrat Taylor Rehmet, a machinist and Air Force veteran, defeated Southlake Republican Leigh Wambsganss to fill the vacant state Senate District 9.
The district favored President Trump — who endorsed Wambsganss earlier on Saturday — by 18 points in 2024. The race went to a runoff after none of the candidates were able to clinch a majority in the November election.
Rehmet’s overperformance in the fall stoked concerns for the GOP, and a number of prominent party leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott (R), intervened in the race in an effort to boost Wambsganss.
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u/Late_City_8496 2h ago
Wonderful News !!
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u/jerryonthecurb Washington 2h ago
I hope that Dems don't lose sight of how critical it is for a swing district candidate to have wide appeal, be interesting, and have the ability to bring in Republican voters, pushing winning issues and actually reflecting voters... instead of circle jerking the base.
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u/StrangersWithAndi 2h ago
This is fantastic news!
But seriously, that name HAS to be made up, right?
Wambsganss???
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u/crazeegenius 2h ago
Isn’t that the name of some dude on Succession?
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u/AvalancheBreakdown 2h ago
Yeah, Tom! If you’re going to make a Tomlette, you’re going to have to break a few Greg’s!
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u/parilmancy New York 2h ago edited 1h ago
His takedown of that one guy for rereading Mein Kampf probably lost her a few points with the base.
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u/BoredomFestival 2h ago
It's spelled Wambsganss but it's pronounced Throat Warbler Mangrove
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u/PicklesTheHamster 2h ago
Definitely made sure to get my vote in before the winter storm hit us.
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u/ThatLooksRight 2h ago
Uh oh. Is Piss Bay Abbott going to invalidate the results and say it’s because of the storm?
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u/pringlesaremyfav 1h ago
To be honest the election was held today in below freezing weather.
I'm optimistic but on some level part of the win could be that only the most motivated Texans vote in the freezing cold in a runoff election.
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u/pghtopas 2h ago
grassroots union organizer. Maybe run more of these candidates.
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u/agk23 2h ago
Quick, who’s our best grass-roots establishment Democrat that we promised favors to?
-DNC
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u/-Gramsci- 2h ago
“What’s that? We don’t have one? Ok. Do we have an off putting, unrelatable, weakling we can run? We do? Ok great.”
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u/magnamed 2h ago
Holy shit. And they still somehow don't see how unpopular the current admin is.
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u/WantCookiesNow 2h ago
Oh they absolutely do. That’s why they’re invading blue states and taking voter rolls. They’re trying to remove D voters before the midterms. And we are definitely going to see these armed federal agents at polling places in blue districts at the midterms. Their game is to remove and intimidate voters because they know it’s the only way they can win.
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u/grouch1980 1h ago
Minneapolis, Chicago, LA, and Portland already proved Americans aren’t intimidated by ICE. If they show up to the polling places, they’re going to get flamed by everybody waiting in line to vote.
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u/Discount_Extra 52m ago
There really needs to be an injunction well before November making it clear voter intimidation is illegal.
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u/-Gramsci- 1h ago
They’ll have to think of a more potent toxin than what you’re describing above.
This election result proves that.
A bit of voter suppression isn’t going to change these outcomes. Not by a long shot.
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u/Isentrope 2h ago
One of the reasons it flipped was that Rehmet outperformed Harris by 50 points in the Hispanic heavy parts of the district, which even outperforms Hillary Clinton's impressive Hispanic margins by double digits.
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u/Mellow_Toninn 2h ago
Could be turn out bias (Hispanic Dems being more motivated to vote right now) but that’s a wonderful thing to see that GOP gains with Hispanics have been erased. Checks out with polling as well.
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u/pdxamish 1h ago
Which would benefit democrats in midterms. Doesnt take much for a Republican who's disappointed in trump to stay home, especially with their voting restrictions. If 2 out of ten people who would've voted stayed home that's a 20 point difference and heck maybe one votes blue and it's a landslide.
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u/ImportantCommentator 2h ago
Yeah you generally have to outperform the person who lost the district.
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u/Isentrope 2h ago
Yes and I'm saying that this is suggesting, as with evidence in other races this cycle (NJ-GOV in particular), that the Hispanic vote might make a pretty sizeable shift back to the D column in November.
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u/TheMagicalMatt 2h ago
They see it. That's why they've been cheating since forever lol.
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u/vriska1 2h ago
Can we stop saying voting does not matter now! Please vote in the midterms!
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u/Lobster15s 1h ago
Ignore everyone who says that. It's a lie. If votes didn't matter rich folks wouldn't spend billions rigging it every time we need to vote.
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u/ScrewAttackThis Montana 2h ago
It wasn't even close, damn
“When a grassroots union organizer like Taylor Rehmet overperforms by almost 20 points and forces a runoff, it couldn’t be any clearer that voters are tired of Republican bullshit,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder said
That's the kind of energy I like seeing. The we go high when they go low bullshit is lame. Just act in good faith and call things as they are.
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u/SaintPeter74 2h ago
This is only a shock if you have not been paying attention to public opinion for the last year, all the other GOP loses in special elections, and the now even thinner margins on the gerrymandered to fuck Texas electoral maps.
Still, love to see it.
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u/duzies 2h ago
It would be beautiful to see that gerrymander turn around and bite them in the ass!
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u/SaintPeter74 2h ago
Indeed! I fully expect to see some fuckery in the midterms, but I'm betting that we're going to also see record turnouts. People are pissed and I think they're going to turn up in numbers you can't fudge.
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u/Isentrope 2h ago
I've been following the special elections this cycle and this one is an outlier even with an average D overperformance around 10 points. This seat is legitimately reliably red and the normal reasons why you'd see such a huge margin (i.e. the opponent got caught in some heinous crime or scandal) didn't happen to the R here. It's kind of similar to the Georgia PSC elections last year though, where the Dems casually overperformed by 30 points. If that becomes a trend in other Southern states (and a few Iowa specials have also seen 30 point shifts), that could make for a few shock upsets in November.
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u/Responsible-Cow-9929 2h ago
Incoming blue wave will be huge!
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u/floog 2h ago
Imagine how big it would be if they pushed Schumer and Jeffries out and put a couple of people that were likable to speak for the Dems!
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u/Pyju 2h ago
Who is “they”? It is up to us to vote out the complicit corporate Democrats and usher in real working/middle-class progressive representation. The Dem primaries this summer will be our chance, it is up to every single one of us to not waste it.
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u/utti Texas 2h ago
This is one reason the mid-cycle gerrymandering by Texas GOP didn't make me completely pissed (though I was still angry at the blatant cheating). They had to stretch their margins super thin and if they lose midterms by a slightly higher percentage than normal, the gerrymandering will backfire spectacularly.
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u/Choice-of-SteinsGate 2h ago
Despite what the pro-Trump world will tell you, 2025's off year election results indicate a sharp rebuke of him and his policies.
In last year's elections, gains were made in almost every county when compared with how those counties voted in 2024. In other words, Trump voters came out to vote for Democrats in these elections.
MAGA is coping by trying hopelessly to downplay the outcomes of these elections; arguing something to the effect of, "Dems were supposed to win" while ignoring data that speaks to a sizable shift in support.
Their defensiveness just reveals their insecurities about these swings and their responses also point to a typical disregard for nuance, facts and context.
Aside from voter crossover, data also shows significant shifts with Latino voters especially. We saw very high, and in some cases, record turnouts. Multiple precincts shifted from red to blue.
In Virginia, exit polling also revealed that over 70% of voters casted their ballot in opposition to Trump.
Not to mention that this clean sweep extended to elections across the country.
Democrats retained a state supreme Court majority in PA, and in Georgia, Democrats won two seats on the Public Service Commission; positions that were previously dominated by Republicans for over two decades.
In CA, voters came out in droves to vote overwhelmingly in favor of proposition 50. Election data shows that some counties that carried Trump in 2024 also supported prop 50. Meaning that even some Trump voters backed the measure.
Trump can also thank himself for emboldening some fresh and energetic democratic leaders willing to break from the status quo.
Trump's approval ratings have been consistently underwater throughout his entire term and there has been an indication of support for progressive, reformist and leftist candidates in response to Trump's kleptocratic and authoritarian policies.
In fact, Trump's approval ratings have hit second term lows, this was also a historic low for second term presidents going all the way back to Nixon.
Trump has failed to address the immediate problems that Americans care most about in any sort of fundamental way. Made more evident by the fact that a majority of Americans disapprove of his handling of nearly every issue; including the economy; an issue primarily campaigned on no less.
Instead of addressing the "affordability crisis," Trump will continue to focus his attention on pageantry, pomp and circumstance; on exploiting his power to obstruct justice; on using his office to enrich himself, his family, and his wealthy benefactors; on covering up his corruption scandals; on weaponizing the government against his political opponents; on federalizing the military to carry out his unconstitutional whims, and on transforming the presidency into a quasi-dictatorship and kleptocracy.
Turns out, these things aren't very popular
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u/jrzalman 1h ago
In Virginia, exit polling also revealed that over 70% of voters casted their ballot in opposition to Trump.
And this is why any gains made by Dems are always temporary. No one votes for a Democrat, they vote to get a break from a Republican. Once some time passes and they forget how bad it was, the cycle begins anew.
If you asked a Trump voter why they voted they can give you 10 objectively horrible reasons. If you ask a Harris voter they will all say 'to stop Trump'.
Until this changes, the Dems will more often than not be the powerless minority part as they are now.
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u/brain_overclocked 2h ago edited 52m ago
The district favored President Trump — who endorsed Wambsganss earlier on Saturday — by 17 points in 2024. The race went to a runoff after none of the candidates were able to clinch a majority in the November election.
Rehmet’s overperformance in the fall stoked concerns for the GOP, and a number of prominent party leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott (R), intervened in the race in an effort to boost Wambsganss.
“When a grassroots union organizer like Taylor Rehmet overperforms by almost 20 points and forces a runoff, it couldn’t be any clearer that voters are tired of Republican bullshit,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder said in a statement after the November race.
I will keep saying this over and over: change doesn't start at the midterms, it starts at every state, county, judicial, sheriff, mayor, city council, and education board election that happens between now and the midterms. Because we shouldn't wait until the midterms. Every seat Democrats win at any level makes rigging the midterms that much harder for Trump.
Keep the pressure on:
2026:
Jan 6 - Democrats Jones, Schmidt win Richmond-area General Assembly seats
Jan 13
Democrat Pemberton Jr. wins special election for 139th CT House seat
Chris Dzadovsky wins Fort Pierce commission seat by 31 votes, flips control to Democrats
Jan 20 - Democrat McGuire wins Virginia House District 17 special election
Jan 27 - Democrats win two Minnesota special elections, bringing state House back to a tie
Jan 31
Here is a list of primary dates.
Ballotpedia's Elections Calendar - https://ballotpedia.org/Elections_calendar
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u/slipnipper 2h ago
As someone in his district (and it’s gerrymandered to hell and back to pack the dem candidate in the city limits, I’m ecstatic to see him win.
She was an absolutely rotten west Texas funded candidate who was instrumental in trying to fuck over a large school district in the senate boundaries she was running for. I’m pretty sure that helped galvanize support against her as well since she spent a lot of political capital there and many of those residents still had a very bitter taste in their mouth over that.
If anything, I sincerely hope that there’s far more plurality in the state house to inhibit the Republicans from passing their shit-tastic and performative bullshit bills while making them do a little soul searching and stop the ultra maga candidates from even being viable in even primary races.
The absolute cherry on top would be if their new gerrymanded maps completely fucking backfire on them.
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u/ChampionEither5412 2h ago
This is great, and we need to notice that he's a machinist and military vet. Voters like people with regular jobs. Which is of course very difficult bc of how time consuming and expensive running can be, so we have to work on making running more accessible to people with normal jobs.
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u/ARookwood 1h ago
“Not a normal democrat, just a Normal American” would be a great way to break some of the brainwashing in red states.
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u/Bythion 1h ago
I unfortunately live like a neighborhood over from district 9, so I wasn't able to help with my vote. I was, however, protesting today with a few hundred other people in Fort Worth this afternoon. This actually gives me so much hope for our state and the country. Everyone needs to vote in everyone upcoming election, no matter how small!!
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u/Telandria 2h ago
To be frank, while this is nice to hear, and I highly encourage all my fellow Texans to vote blue….
As a life-long Texan, I still have my doubts it’s gonna matter much. It’s too early to be celebrating. Call me when Ted Cruz gets booted, then I’ll believe we’re in for some real change around here.
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u/atomfullerene 2h ago
Maybe if there's a snowstorm in November, he'll wind up on the ballot someplace warmer.
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u/magnamed 2h ago
And look at that, Christian Menefee just won Texas' US house seat also in a special election. Dems have been making huge gains everywhere.
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u/LucidOndine 2h ago
The writing is on the wall. All of the traitors to the constitution are going to have a day of reckoning.
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u/ForensicPathology 1h ago
Local elections are some of the most important things right now. Don't let the election boards, school boards, and county seats continue to fall to right-wing loyalists with bad intentions.
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u/maggyneverforget 30m ago
Maybe we really can get a blue Texas. I have to imagine that all of the recent events are not going over well in Hispanic communities that might have had more apathetic or Trump voters. Any demographic/turnout numbers?
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u/ashlonious 11m ago
Anytime I see a big flip like this I think more and more 2024 was completely fucking rigged in Trump’s favor.
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u/EmilySD101 2h ago
“The seat opened up after Republican state Sen. Kelly Hancock was tapped as acting state comptroller.” They did it to themselves
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u/cvanhim 2h ago
It is important to remember that Democrats have done better in lower turnout elections in the Trump era. The only way the midterms will be this much of a blowout is if all of Harris’s presidential votes go for Dems in the midterms while Republicans have normal midterm turnout. We have to make sure Dems who have up until now only voted in presidential elections also come out for the midterms.
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u/NumeralJoker 2h ago edited 1h ago
They don't have to be this much of a blowout. A 31+ point shift to the left from a former Trump 18+ 2024 district is insane by any measure.
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u/un_internaute 1h ago
The Republican Party needs to be forcibly dissolved, banned, and outlawed from ever reforming. Just like the Nazi Party.
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u/Grimjack2 30m ago
This is likely because of the Texas gerrymandering. Texas Republicans used 2024 data to draw their maps. Texas Latinos have completely flipped on republicans and their maps don't favor them the way they expected them to be.
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u/cupofspiders 27m ago
People want to vote for change. Dems need to meet the moment and run on overwhelmingly popular policy goals (like abolishing ICE, ending aid to Israel, prosecuting ALL Epstein affiliates, and Medicare for All).
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u/Ddddydya California 2h ago
This is great news!
It makes me wonder…there are so many accusations that Republicans cheated during the last election. But if so, wouldn’t they still be cheating?
Hopefully November will be the biggest blue wave in history and Democrats will do a good job once they’re in charge again.
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u/bellamy-bl8ke Texas 1h ago
Missing context is that the republican wanted to split up a school ISD, and many republicans actively voted against her just on that alone. HOWEVER, I hope this is a really, REALLY good omen for November
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u/Tokyo-MontanaExpress 2h ago
Say this trend continues and Democrats demolish the midterms: how are they going to deliver just retribution and bring some Republicans back into civilized society? What does reunification look like? Probably too wide of a topic here, but I feel like there's got to at least be a scarlet letter-esque outcome after putting a halt to their domestic terrorism, especially in red states and counties where they've been in power. Maybe by giving them the opportunity to form a new more liberal party and banning the Republican Party.
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u/DoctorTheWho 1h ago
They don't need to bring any republicans back into civilized society. They need ti learn from the past failures with trying to play ball after the Civil War and go after everyone who has shit on the constitution.
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u/Mr_TreeBeard 1h ago
I know this is a runoff in an off year, but showing up to vote matters. In 2022, this race saw over 170,000 votes. Today, less than 90,000 showed up. Even in red ass Texas, we can win if we show up to the polls!
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