In a speech before cheering supporters, Democrat Taylor Rehmet dedicated his victory “to everyday working people.”
Democrats scored a major upset on Saturday, as machinist union leader Taylor Rehmet easily defeated Republican opponent Leigh Wambsganss in a state senate special election held in a deep-red district that Donald Trump carried by 17 percentage points in 2024.
With nearly all votes counted, Rehmet holds a 14-point lead in Texas’ Senate District 9, which covers a large portion of Tarrant County.
Republican opponent Wambsganss conceded defeat in the race but vowed to win an upcoming rematch in November.
“The dynamics of a special election are fundamentally different from a November general election,” Wambsganss said. “I believe the voters of Senate District 9 and Tarrant County Republicans will answer the call in November.”
Of course! That’s the good cop/bad cop pattern that is US politics.
Party A makes a horrible mess and makes intractable changes that are never reversed.
Party B “saves” the people with landslide election, making small temporary concessions to much fanfare whilst leaving all of the actual nightmare machine built in the prior decade untouched (example Patriot Act, Citizens United, more).
“We were so close!”
“Just a few more votes!”
“We can’t make these changes overnight”
Stagnate for a generation or so and rake in immense treasures.
“Oh no we’ve printed too much money”, “help all of our manufacturing went to Mexico”, et al spiraling problems and out of control mess.
Party A, the same party that 10-20 years ago wrecked absolutely everything, is here to save the day! Finally! This is the last election! They have had to collect only “significant treasures” for some time, we have to switch it up again so they can now make “immense treasures”.
Parties then actually change and/or eliminate their “platform” and even switch places completely here and there. The “donors” and political elite remain the exact. same. people. The Fed keeps on working, and somehow even with the Fed keeping a firm hand, the banks make record profits. Oh no! they will collapse from their own profiteering fraud, we need to give them tax money so they can make money with the money they already made money with for 20 years. They will pay us back, of course… but only AFTER they “print” all of that money that costs them nothing to print to pay us back with. Wait, they don’t even bother to “print” it, it’s just a number in a server. It’s even easier, the rug pull is so simple. Somehow, every year the banks/corps/robber barons own more land and gold and the actual people own less.
Rinse and repeat from 1970s until today! We will be saved from the villains who saved us from the villains who saved us from those other villains! We’re a democracy, see?
(I hope I’m wrong and instead they have a constitutional convention and SAVE THE WORLD and universal healthcare and “chicken in every pot” New Deal politics and firm corporate control and monopoly busting and separation of church-state cemented and banks removed from banking regulation and so much more. but I don’t think so.)
I thought it was named “ratched effect” for that reason
ratched effect
“My child…”
Pretty sure everyone and their mother said similar when Doug Jones won too.
We all know how that turned out in the next election.
I’m starting to wonder why this even matters? The Epstein Files and all the political action we’ve seen shows that Democrats are there to provide controlled opposition. No Democrat politician will ever manage to make any real change for the better in the country, right?
I’m trying not to be a Doomer, please someone help me not be a Doomer. It doesn’t feel good to be hopeless.
Please explain to us how to Khanna has been controlled opposition with the Epstein files
Good point, I got nothing for that one. Got my doomer blinds on.
Hi, I recommend drugs. Possibly start with thc, but plenty of others if that doesn’t suit your need! I haven’t been a doomer in years.
I don’t recommend nicotine as that can increase doomer behavior.
Shmoken a shpliffen rn
I mean, fingers crossed.
Republicans have a long and storied history of fighting unfairly. And this will definitely put the fear of God in them
and UTAH’S GOV signed a bill that he can EXPAND the supreme court in UTAH as of recently, for the fear of DEM wins in the state.
what does that mean for non-usians?
Sounds like it means he can put a bunch of his friends onto the that state’s supreme court, so any elections held for those positions, while in Dems control (which would flip lots of seats after their terms are up), will be ineffective against the horde of Republicunts he puts into power until the Dems are the bad guys again
Dems could pack the court as well
They don’t fight dirty like that. Even when they should.
Republican opponent Wambsganss conceded defeat in the race but vowed to win an upcoming rematch in November.
Rematch??
This was a special election to fill a spot. The prior person (Kelly Hancock) quit to become state comptroller. These two will be running in the fall, though I wonder if the groups (including some with ties to white nationalism) that spent $2.5m on her will do so again in the fall. He raised $380k, mostly small donors.
Fun fact - Texas senate doesn’t meet this year, so he might not have a ton to do before the next election, but he’ll run as an incumbent, will be getting ready for next year’s session, and it’s also a nice pants-shitting moment for the Tarrant county Republican Party which is already in the midst of a party purity jihad.
(Seriously, they’re suing and being sued by other republicans about being removed from republican primaries, as well as suing to have democrats removed from Democrat primaries)
The hell? The Texas senate only meets for 140 days in odd years? How do they get anything done?
Texas likes small government so much our state legislature is a part time job.
It’s even crazier than that. If I remember right, every single law is a change to the Texas constitution.
There is also a saying that we would be better off if it were held for two days every 140 years. And there have been some bills that have died (DMCA, IIRC) because they couldn’t get through committee in time, so the “have to be passed this year” had to wait 2 more years.
But they can and will call “special session” for the sorriest of reasons.
It’s not that all laws have to be constitutional amendments, but our constitution is so long and detailed and a lot of things were written into it to make them hard to change later, so way more laws have to be constitutional amendments than would be in other states.
It’s even crazier than that. If I remember right, every single law is a change to the Texas constitution.
No, changes to the state constitution have to pass a 2/3 vote in the state house and senate and then become a ballot measure for the public to vote on. We have a ridiculous number of incredibly specific things in it, though, so we tend to have like a dozen amendments to vote on every time. But we also have a regular statutory code that is altered by regular bills passing the legislature and gubernatorial signature.
they do it to avoid questioning from thier constituents in case things goes bad, like the texas freeze or the power grid failing and to prevent Dems from getting things done.
They don’t, that’s the point
New soap opera – As Texas Turns
if texas runs out of food, they can go hunt some FERAL pigs that have run amock in the state.
Ha! It has to actually turn. We’ll see what fall looks like.
haha, republicans sure are karens, they do love to sue. in any case thier own voter suppression methods is probably hurting THE GOP more than the dems(which incudes gerrymandering other ways of excluding dems from running fairly)_, since they dont have real power in the state to begin with(the dems).
Yeah, the regular election cycle is apparently coming up in a few months.
It’s just a game for some people.
It is a game for people who can spend over $2M on a campaign like this and probably do it again a few months later.
Leigh was bankrolled by two PACs, one of which is owned by a couple of billionaires.
As TryingSomethingNew said above he might jusy get lucky, because without the Texas Senate sitting before Nov the GOP will have little cannon fodder to blast him with.
One would almost wish there were more upcoming elections like this.
What is even the point of holding a special election for a position that doesn’t actually have anything to do before the actual election?
The law says there needs to be an election so an election was held.
That doesn’t actually answer my question, it just kicks the can down to: why was there a law requiring there to be an election when there also exists a law about there not being any reason for an election to be held?
Wambsganss
Can’t make a Tomlette without breaking a few Gregs.
Hopefully nobody is dumb enough to vote a republican in for 100 years. What is his stance on Israel?
He’s not on AIPAC tracker yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was. Democrats are just Israeli and billionaire shills. They don’t give a shit about the common man.
Because the Patriot Mobile executive is a better option… At least vote. We can fix a lot of stuff later, but getting there in one piece is important.
Well duh. I don’t see how my comment is being inflated with me not voting Democrat or not voting. “Democrats are the lesser of two evils” is a very common thing that leftists say.
Dems are a large tent. There’s subsets, like my district, that refuse that kind of money.
True but there’s an influx of anti Israel dems running but it’s hard because they’re up against AIPAC
He was outspent 10 to 1 so if aipac is funding him they are doing a shit job of it.
He’s a union man. Might actually have integrity. Fingers crossed.
I’m 100% pro-union, but union leaders rarely have integrity, sadly.
Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick reacted somberly to the news of Rehmet’s victory, warning in a social media post that the result was “a wake-up call for Republicans across Texas.”
“Our voters cannot take anything for granted,” Patrick emphasized.
Totally forgotten who works for whom in this arrangement. That’s how deep the fascism is baked in.
A lot of GOP voted for this Dem. They’re sick of current leadership also. Dan Patrick needs a clue.
they have the tie is too long ken paxton felon that has been charged by not apprehended.
Though a claim that the right voters just didn’t show up would help if magically the GOP carried the district in just 10 months when there is almost nothing free and fair that one could imagine causing such a rematch to change to the tune of a 14 point swing …
Whether he incites riots or not…he’s going to try and cancel the elections.
While Fort Worth is a red city, it’s still a major city in the Dallas area. Fort Worth is not full of rednecks who work the fields
I am honestly afraid the Repubs will start behaving themselves until after Nov…maybe even be able to somewhat reign in their Orange monkey-god and then wait to begin again with the fascism with even more vigor after the midterms. I live in a purple state with a Democratic governor with an election this year. I am terrified that my state is going to elect a Trump lickspittle this Nov.
Your optimism far exceeds mine.
That seems to be about all it takes for voters to forgive their representatives for their sins.
How are they going to “behave themselves” this year? They can’t run away from Trump without losing most of their cult base. I don’t know what state you’re from but I’d still put money on Dems winning
Oh, they most certainly wouldn’t be…I guess I mean that they will say they are behaving themselves and a complicit media will repeat this as if it were the truth. 9 months of that and the same kind of shite who voted GOP will cheerfully do so again. It’s almost like they will be begging for permission to double down even further denying the reality around them.
This gives me hope. So far the runoff are seeing a huge blue shift. I just hope people go out and vote and don’t be purist saying the candidate is not perfect. We are in this mess because many refused to vote
We need to remind people that a binary decision means you try for one or you get the other.
they have to overcome the Texas extremely oppressive voter suppression first.
I know this is a tangent, but does the bible contain many earthquakes?
There’s the walls of Jericho thing.
Some hornblowers make it feel like the earth moved. They’re that good.
Paul and Silas get broken out of jail by an earthquake
There’s one when Jesus dies I believe.
https://biblerepository.com/bible-verses-about-earthquakes-2/
Yes, though based on the list there sounds like the most-dramatic ones there are in Revelation, which is a prophetic vision of the future, rather than about the past.
I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
A bunch of those are a huge stretch, but I’ll take the revaluations one.
Like that would change anything, your “Dems” are just as corrupt as your “Republicans”
Not even close.
“Sort of or mostly corrupt” v “Cartoon villain corrupt” are two different things. Better is better.
One will pander to you sometimes, the other hates you. Choose one.
That’s why you replace the individuals with ones that aren’t corrupt, are you fucking stupid
So how much of last year’s shit would have happened with the Dems exactly?
How much of this shit would have happened if they were actually against it?
This ^, right here. Just standing there and watching it all happen while having all the authority to combat it, is exactly the same thing as siding.
Do you think we live in a democracy or a dictatorship?
Can the tories stop labor in great Britain?
Can the conservatives in Canada stop the liberals right now?
What do you expect from the party we DIDN’T VOTE FOR?
The US is more an oligarchy than anything else or do you actually believe you live in a democratic system?
Do you think the votes are rigged?
Do you think laws can’t be passed? Did the deep state create Obamacare and pretend it was Obama and the Democrats?
What about the chips act? The inflation reduction act? Are they pretending to pass laws?
Do you even know what an oligarchy is?
Perhaps we are operating on different definitions.
I would not disagree that America is a de facto oligarchy. It remains a de jure democracy.
