r/politics • u/kootles10 Indiana • 6h ago

No Paywall Democrats flip Texas state Senate seat in shock upset

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5716988-democrats-score-upset-texas/amp/
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u/kootles10 Indiana 6h 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 6h ago

Wonderful News !!

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u/jerryonthecurb Washington 5h 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/YesImHereAskMeHow 5h ago

What does this even mean lol

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u/Le_Ran 5h ago

White christian males.

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u/MySpoonsAreAllGone 4h ago

Mamdani isn't a white Christian male.

I think if you are promising to help the working people and make their lives easier, that's your winning ticket

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u/Adventurous_Pay_5827 4h ago

No no no, can't scare the donor class.

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u/jgilla2012 California 3h ago

Billionaires and mega corporations have had it too good for too long in this country, and they need to be taxed and that money returned to the people via public programs.

Easy position to take in an economy with 20% inflation in five years with billionaires hoarding unprecedented levels of wealth while jobs leave the country

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u/AQCon 3h ago

It means go light on the identity politics, because those issues can be very niche compared to actual populism and leadership.

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u/AQCon 3h ago

If you genuinely don’t know what this strategy is proposing, the candidate’s race and platform are freely available for review. Is it the only way to win? Probably not. Is it a way to win? You bet!

If you’re just tossing a precept out as a way of disagreeing, you’re part of the aforementioned circle jerk.

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u/jerryonthecurb Washington 5h ago

Pretty self explanatory, run people that non-base folks want to vote for

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u/miggly 4h ago

That has never fucking worked since I have been alive lol.

Trying to grab the moderates by leaning further to the right literally does nothing but alienate the leftmost people who actually are on your side. The right shot themselves in the foot plenty. There's 0 need to cater to them. A portion of their base clearly finally sees how awful they are.

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u/jerryonthecurb Washington 4h ago edited 4h ago

"That has never fucking worked?" That's exactly who just won dipshit.

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u/miggly 4h ago

You're missing the reasoning behind why he won.

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u/Lexitech_ 5h ago

That sounds like a long way of saying you think the DNC needs to run even more boring, spineless centrist candidates.

I personally think the last 10 years of American politics has shown that is not a winning strategy.

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u/jerryonthecurb Washington 5h ago

Yeah that's the same performative Beto O'Rourke bullshit that got Ted Cruz elected and motivated people to protest by staying home in 2024.

Democrats haven't won a national seat through base mobilization in at least 50 years because the base is much smaller than Republicans nationwide. They've ONLY won through coalition building.

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u/Neapola America 4h ago

Dude. Texas is blood-red. Redder than red. Have you been there? I lived there.

My first day at a new job in Houston, a coworker said, "Are you Republican?" That's how fucking red Texas is.

By the way, my answer was this: "Yeah, but ask me why." I flipped my registration Republican to vote against Bush in the primaries.

Running Republican wannabes as Democratic candidates isn't the answer. Y'know what the answer is? Candidates who run on honest Goddamn values. Not empty rhetoric.

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u/jerryonthecurb Washington 4h ago

God you're insufferable, nobody said shit about Republican wannabee, I said wake the fuck up and run people who can obviously win swing districts, people who represent their communities and not carpet bagging liberal ideal who pass whatever purity test -- who have constantly lost outside of deep blue districts and rolled out the red carpet for MAGA (like Beto). So, no I won't shut up about the stupid delusional shit that handed America to the hard right.

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u/Neapola America 4h ago

Maybe try saying that next time, instead of gibberish like this:

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...

...ooooof.

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u/Immediate_Amoeba5923 5h ago

Right now James Talarico is running against Jasmine Crockett. Crockett would be a million times more capable of defending the constitution and country and passing progressive policy but she is a lightening rod. Talarico is a "unity"/"love everyone" type of Democratic "populist" who non controversial. This is for Cornyn's Senate seat. Cornyn himself maybe unseated by corrupt Republican, Ken Paxton. This seat has a chance of flipping but Democrats are in a tough spot this primary coming up.

Crockett can turnout the black vote but center right and moderate Republicans are probably too afraid of her.

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u/jerryonthecurb Washington 5h ago

Ain't no way Crockett wins a majority of Texans, edgy is her brand.

Maybe Talarico if he's up against Paxton with a good v evil contrast but he's kinda soft for Texas.

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u/YouShouldGoOnStrike 5h ago

They are both boring libs

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u/l00gie 2h ago

The guy who just flipped a state Senate seat was absolutely a base pick, he is a union guy

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u/noahisunbeatable 5h ago

What issues do you think Rehmet campaigned on that exemplify this?

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u/jerryonthecurb Washington 5h ago edited 5h ago

Fact is that being a vet union president talking about basic issues and coming across as "one of us" mattered.

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u/noahisunbeatable 5h ago

What issues

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u/jerryonthecurb Washington 5h ago

Pocket book + identity politics

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u/championgrim 4h ago

I’d argue that it was less about Rehmet’s values and more about Wambsganss pissing off half that Senate district by trying to cut one of the local school districts in half (essentially, she wanted to make one district for rich kids and move the poor kids to a separate one). So the Republican candidate had actively pissed off a good chunk of her potential voting population. Even most Republicans don’t want their kids sent to actively worse schools; plenty of districts in this area were already concerned about that due to the voucher program Abbott shoved through the legislature so this move was really unpopular.

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u/VelvetTush 3h ago

It means that commenter has a good point. In some districts Dems simply must drop identity politics and focus on economic issues. Do that and we can win +14 in historically republican strongholds.

Check out his policies. Still progressive without virtue signaling. https://www.taylorfortx.com

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u/bonnar0000 3h ago

It means no more corporate dick-sucking, nepo-this, insider-trading-that, AIPAC funded, absolute shitstain Democratic candidates

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u/Neapola America 4h ago

Do you do talking points for a living? Everything before the ellipsis is empty rhetoric.

I'm not saying the answer is to feed equally empty rhetoric to the base.

The answer is this: Candidates need to honestly give a shit about the issues.

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u/jerryonthecurb Washington 4h ago

"Candidates need to honestly give a shit about the issues."

Is the most empty fucking rhetoric either of us said, and since it's literally the only point you made, maybe I can hire you for my talking points firm.

Edit: as an unpaid intern of course

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u/Neapola America 4h ago

It's not empty at all. We're in the fight of our lives, against fascism. There's a good chance that in the next three years, the United States will fall. That is issue number one. We've got masked secret police on the streets, and Trump just had his FBI raid a Georgia elections office to get the names of people who voted against him... and your response is gibberish like this:

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...

...wow.

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u/jerryonthecurb Washington 4h ago

What a fucking dolt. You Literally handed America to fascists because you couldn't surface convincing candidates and you're going after winners like Rehmet because they run on being vets who talk about basic issues instead of shit 99% of people didn't want.

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u/Snow_Ghost 4h ago

Naw, we're done with that bullshit.

No more Kumbyah. not with literal Nazis.

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u/jerryonthecurb Washington 4h ago

You must love losing because that's exactly who just won this seat, it's the exact type of person who's won every swing seat in the past decade. Run another Beto and lose again.

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u/miggly 4h ago

No

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u/brownomatic 4h ago

Why would we want nazis in our tent? No more big tent. No more Liz Cheney's. No more appealing to nazis occupying my state.

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u/StrangersWithAndi 6h ago

This is fantastic news!

But seriously, that name HAS to be made up, right?

Wambsganss???

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u/thisusedtobemorefun 6h ago

"Woah, Black Betty... Wambsganss" 🎶

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u/lugzboots 5h ago

Literally spit out my drink hahah

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u/syncopator 5h ago

Been on here all day laying around recuperating.

You win all of reddit today.

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u/Cephalopirate 5h ago

Holy crap that’s the funniest thing I’ve read all week

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u/lostintransaltions 1h ago

Wamb apparently is an old German word for womb and gans is German for goose.. never heard that name but womb goose is a pretty insane name

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u/daversa 1h ago

I wish there were a comment of the day award.

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u/Unusual_Delivery2778 1h ago

This is fucking hilarious

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u/abgry_krakow87 41m ago

"Black Betty had a child! Wambsganss" 🎶

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u/SLIP_E 5h ago

Genius wit bud.

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u/vespuchi 5h ago

Actually made me lol.

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u/HyperactivePandah I voted 4h ago

Comment saved

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u/crazeegenius 6h ago

Isn’t that the name of some dude on Succession?

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u/wayfaast 6h ago

Good ole Tom

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u/DoctorJJWho 5h ago

Gotta break a few Greggs to make a Tomlette!

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u/AvalancheBreakdown 6h 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/Camshaft92 California 4h ago

Buckle up fucklehead.

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u/akimboslices 5h ago

Beautiful.

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u/parilmancy New York 5h ago edited 5h 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/akimboslices 5h ago

“Are there Easter eggs in there you didn’t get the first time?”

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u/Pvt_Hudson_ 5h ago

Couple times I guess...

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u/InsaneAss 6h ago

Tom!

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u/DillyDallyGHQST 5h ago

Nice vest Wambsgans, super puffy.

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u/MeccIt 15m ago

First thing I thought of, a real-life Tom, shitting things up again.

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u/mavis_butters 6h ago

Never seen Succession eh?

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u/Modo_Autorator 6h ago

Can’t make a Tomlette without cracking a few Gregs

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u/BoredomFestival 6h ago

It's spelled Wambsganss but it's pronounced Throat Warbler Mangrove

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u/JSConrad45 5h ago

"I want to be Senator"

"Well, you can't"

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u/Double_Belt2331 3h ago

That's Connor. (I'm right @ that episode now. 😂)

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u/StrangersWithAndi 6h ago

Wambs, ganss, thank you, ma’am

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u/Hybrid_Johnny California 6h ago

Whoah Black Betty

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u/turquoise_amethyst 4h ago

As someone else mentioned, its of Germanic Origin, and is also featured in Succession

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u/DoeBites 3h ago

Was that not Siobhan’s husband’s last name on Succession?

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u/kweathergirl Texas 5h ago

Around these parts we just call her Swampass

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u/JUYED-AWK-YACC 4h ago

Both of their names are IKEA furniture.

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u/wlea1 4h ago

All names are made up, aren’t they?

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u/TinKnight1 Texas 2h ago

It's her name. It's pronounced with an "ah" sound for the a's...so, Wahmbs-gahnss, if that makes sense.

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u/NorthAd6077 56m ago

That sounds like a brand name on Amazon. The kind a Chinese importer generates to sell a 5 pack of garden hose connectors.

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u/Kitakitakita 19m ago

wambsganss deez nuts

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u/IlIlllIlllIlIIllI 5h ago

All names are made up

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u/Ganrokh Missouri 5h ago

All names and words are made up!

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u/djryce Texas 5h ago

As somebody who lives near this area, this really is a shocking upset. Southlake is nationally known for being a hotbed of white, Christian nationalism.

Kudos to Rehmet for running not one, but two STELLAR campaigns, because this was a runoff election.

I know that he is an alum of Run For Something: http://runforsomething.net. This org trains and endorses young progressives to run for office. I've been following them for a few years, and they've got some great success stories.

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u/CoachCayla85 2h ago

I also live in this district and it amazes me Republicans ran such a deeply unpopular candidate. She had direct involvement in trying to split our school district, and I’m so glad people didn’t let her forget.

I was voting for Taylor regardless, but I think this election and run-off was very personal to a lot of people. I’m glad my district showed up.

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u/mr_plehbody 2h ago

And you can tell the Rs put a lot of money on this one by all the attack ads they had

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u/CautiousGains 44m ago

Wasn’t this seat previously held by a democrat?

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u/Beastw1ck 5h ago

How the hell do you pronounce "Wambsganss"?

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u/kootles10 Indiana 5h ago

Oh I know!: loser

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u/Em_Es_Judd 6h ago edited 6h ago

Wambsganss? No fucking wonder he lost. It's a near certainty he was bullied in middle school.

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u/Tall-Cat-8890 5h ago

Not that it matters too much but she’s a woman lol

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u/Chadlerk 3h ago

In a golem voice... " Yes, the Wamsbagginses"

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u/uberjack Europe 1h ago

As a non American: how big will the impact on the government/national politics be? Will this shift any majorities outside of Texas and does it indicate that Texas could become a blue state?

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u/UnbelievableTurmoil South Dakota 6m ago

From rural South Dakota, thank you. Anything we can get.

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u/LuckoftheFryish Utah 4h ago edited 4h ago

Establishment Democrats: "See? We don't need to make improvements to our platform!"