Taylor Rehmet (left) defeated Leigh Wambsganss (right) in a runoff election in Tarrant County on Jan. 31 with 57% of the vote. (Photo courtesy of campaigns)
Republican Leigh Wambsganss lost a runoff election in Senate District 9—considered a deep-red district in Tarrant County—to Democrat Taylor Rehmet on Jan. 31.
When Laney Hawes, a mother to four students in Keller Independent School District, saw that Leigh Wambsganss could be representing the Republican party in Texas’ Senate District 9 election, she said she had to laugh.
“ Tarrant County Republicans put up Leigh Wambsganss, the woman who bragged about taking over our school districts,” Hawes told COURIER Texas. “They’re a disaster because of what she’s done. Of course we’re not gonna vote for her.”
In 2022, Patriot Mobile, a conservative Christian cell phone company, launched its own political action committee that aims to “keep Texas red” and turned its focus to Tarrant County school boards. Wambsganss is the chief communications officer at the company.
“They came—unbeknownst to us—into our communities and interviewed people who would be loyal to their cause, who would run and be loyal to their agenda,” Hawes explained.
Patriot Mobile helped fund campaigns for 11 candidates in four school districts across North Texas, and won every seat.
“Of course they won,” Hawes said. “They had half a million dollars, and it normally takes $5,000 to run a school board election.”
The conservative-stacked school boards went on to fan the flames of culture wars in the districts, passing sweeping policies that limited support for LGBTQ+ students and increased book bans across North Texas schools, all while ignoring real problems the districts were facing, according to Hawes.
“Our property taxes have gone up, but we’re not getting more money for our schools,” she said. “People are livid about that. We have schools who can’t keep their heaters on in the winter and can’t keep our air conditioners on when it’s hot because we don’t have enough money. We have schools that are closing down. Class sizes are increasing because we’re losing teachers.”
Hawes said Wambsganss—who was endorsed by Republican President Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Greg Abbott, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick—was the face of all of it.
“It wreaked havoc in our communities,” she said. “Our schools are a disaster because of what she’s done . You mix in the fact that she’s pro-voucher and that she’s going to go to Austin and keep voting to not fund our schools because she supports the privatization of public education and wants to see our public schools fail … of course we’re not going to vote for her.”
Hawes said that Republican leadership is living in an echo chamber and is out of touch with what real voters want, which helped Democrat Taylor Rehmet win in the historically deep-red district.
Rehmet, a veteran and union leader, beat Wambsganss in a runoff election on Jan. 31 with 57% of the vote. Trump secured the same district by 17 points in 2024, and a Democrat hadn’t won in the district in over 30 years.
“The context of the runoff result is difficult to ignore,” the Texas American Federation of Teachers said in a statement. “State leaders have led Texas astray, particularly in the realm of public education. Rehmet’s opponent financially supported reactionary school board members that focused on culture wars over supporting students and educators. By contrast, Rehmet ran a positive, pro-public education campaign and was duly rewarded for it by the voters.”
Hawes also emphasized Rehmet’s messaging reaching across party lines.
“This win was such a big deal because, for the first time ever, we had so much that happened to our schools that so many community members were so angry about that was not along party lines, which doesn’t seem to happen very often anymore,” Hawes said.
In an interview for Eye On Politics, Ross Hunt, a Republican pollster and principal of Hunt Research in Dallas, said that Democrats won this seat because almost all of the independent voters who voted in this election—and some of the Republican voters—voted for the Democrat, which “is the biggest warning sign for Republican candidates this fall.”
Rehmet, whose campaign focused on affordability and funding public education, spoke out against private school vouchers and the privatization of public schools leading up to the election.
“ Working class and poor kids will suffer the most under this voucher scheme, while billionaires and the most powerful will cash in on it,” Rehmet said in an interview with COURIER Texas ahead of the election. “It’s corruption and a betrayal to working Texans. Patriot Mobile has spent over $600,000 trying to defund public schools.”
He also ran on supporting teacher raises, creating mental health staff in every school, having strict oversight to prevent school boards from banning books or invading student privacy, and emphasizing the need for schools to go back to teaching instead of acting as culture-war battlegrounds
“After 30 years of culture wars and empty promises, voters want someone who shows up for them, not someone who is looking for a soundbite,” he said. “Texans are tired of extremism.”
The election was held to fill a vacancy left by former Sen. Kelly Hancock. Since it was a special election, Rehmet will only serve the remainder of the current term through the end of the year, facing off against Wambsganss once more in November for a new four-year term beginning in January 2027.
“When we went to polls in November and January we were voting for public education,” Hawes said. “And we’ll do it again this November.”
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