Shocking things are happening in the political world, and if Republicans were not worried before, they had better be worried now.
Taylor Rehmet crushed the Trump-endorsed Leigh Wambsganss in a very deep red district that is spitting distance from my home.
And the race was not even close, with Rehmet winning 57.2% to 42.8% with 95% of all votes counted.
If you are familiar with Texas, you know that Fort Worth and Arlington, which is District 9, are about as conservative as it gets, or at least I thought that was the case.
They still do a cattle run in downtown Fort Worth, and there are more cowboy hats than baseball caps walking around the city.
Trump won this district by 17 points in the last election, yet Rehmet managed to flip more than 30% in this special election for the seat formerly held by State Sen. Kelly Hancock, a Republican, now the state comptroller.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who is running for the Senate, is already pushing out photo-ops with Rehmet, so, yes, this is a real problem.
The GOP is rattled by this, and it should be, but again, let me ask where the big names, including President Trump, were to drum up support for Hancock.
Trump has a massive war chest, so he clearly could have offset the money Democrats poured into this race, and it might have helped to have Vice President JD Vance pay a visit to the state, but the administration and the RNC ignored the election until it was too late. Trump made his endorsement on Friday for a Saturday special election, so he might as well have flown a kite on a windless day for all the good that did in this election.
Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, rightfully gloated, stating, “In a Trump +17 district, Republicans had to go all out and still lost this race. Tonight’s results prove that no Republican seat is safe.”
Luke Macias, a conservative activist and Texas political consultant, said the quiet part out loud, stating, “November was always going to be a real battle but tonight should hopefully remind us all that we will be fighting against a force that believes they have to win.”
While James Talarico had the initial lead in Democrat primary polls for the upcoming Senate election, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) was ahead in three of the last four, two of them with significant leads, so she is likely to get the nod.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton are in a dead heat in polling, with Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) a distant third. There was a time when I would have pulled the handle for Hunt, but he has gone MIA in Congress during this run, so there is no way I will support him for the Senate. Now it is about choosing who can beat the Democrat, as both Paxton and Cornyn have a lot of baggage, and quite frankly, I don’t like either of them.
In terms of general election polling, Cornyn fares far better than Paxton against Crockett, so that would seem to be the play if we want to keep the Dems from stealing a Senate seat in Texas.
Cornyn is a Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) loyalist and is definitely rooted in the establishment, but I don’t think there is another option here. Paxton has more skeletons in his closet than a Halloween store, and Crockett is a real threat against him, so it is RINO or bust here. It’s sad, really, because had Hunt not missed more than 90% of his votes in the House and bragged about it, I think he could have taken this race and rid us of both Paxton and Cornyn. But Texans still better show up because it would be completely demoralizing to see Crockett snag a seat in the Senate.
