In a turn of events that has local GOP chairs clutching their pearls and checking for a pulse, Democrat Taylor Rehmet just flipped a Texas Senate seat in a district Donald Trump won by 17 points only two years ago. Yes, you read that right. A labor union leader and veteran managed to beat out a “MAGA-approved” activist in Tarrant County by a staggering 14 points. That’s a 30-point swing for those of you who went to schools funded by Texas’s “stellar” educational budget and can’t do the math.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is currently on X (formerly Twitter, currently a fever dream) calling it a “wake-up call.” It turns out that when your platform is basically “we own everything forever,” voters might actually get bored enough—or annoyed enough—to try something else. Rehmet won by talking about crazy, fringe concepts like “lowering costs” and “supporting public education,” while the GOP candidate, Leigh Wambsganss, was left wondering where all the voters went. Spoiler alert: they didn’t go to the polls to vote for her.
The best part? This seat has been redder than a Lubbock dust storm sunset for decades. This victory adds Texas to a growing list of “oopsies” for the GOP since 2025, joining the ranks of Virginia, New Jersey, and even Iowa. While the Texas Legislature won’t actually meet again until 2027—because why work more than once every two years?—the symbolic middle finger from the voters is being seen all the way from Austin to the Hub City.
If Tarrant County, the supposed crown jewel of Texas conservatism, can decide they’ve had enough of the status quo, does that mean Lubbock might one day consider a candidate who doesn’t use “California” as a three-syllable curse word? Probably not, but watching the state leadership scramble like a bunch of prairie dogs spotting a hawk is the most entertainment we’ve had since the last time it rained for ten minutes.
Is it a “blue wave,” or are Texans just finally realizing that you can’t actually eat “owning the libs” for dinner?