2025–26 Texas's 9th Senate district special election

←  2022 November 4, 2025 (first round) January 31, 2026 (runoff) 2026  →
Texas's 9th Senate district
Candidate Taylor Rehmet Leigh Wambsganss John Huffman Party Democratic Republican Republican First round 56,565 47.57% 42,739 35.94% 19,608 16.49% Runoff 54,280 57.21% 40,600 42.79% Eliminated
First round precinct results Rehmet:     30–40%     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%     >90% Wambsganss:     30–40%     40–50%     50–60% Huffman:     >90% Tie:     50% No vote:
Senator before election Kelly Hancock Republican Elected Senator Taylor Rehmet Democratic

A special election was held on November 4, 2025, with a runoff on January 31, 2026, to fill the vacant 9th district in the Texas Senate. The district was vacant following the resignation of Republican Kelly Hancock to become the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.

Contents

• Background
• First round
• Candidates
• Campaign
• Endorsements
• Results
• Runoff
• Results 2
• References

Background

Incumbent Republican Senator Kelly Hancock resigned on June 18, 2025, to become chief clerk of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. This led to a special election in the 9th district, which governor Greg Abbott scheduled for November 4, 2025. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Texas's 9th Senate district is strongly Republican, with Donald Trump carrying the district by 17 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election. ^[4] Special elections in Texas use a two-round system: candidates of all parties appear on the ballot together, and if no candidate receives 50% of the vote, a runoff election is held between the top two candidates. ^[5]

First round

Runoff

During the runoff campaign, Wambsganss continued to outraise and outspend Rehmet, with donations from several sources for Wambsganss topping $100,000, while Rehmet's donations mostly came from smaller sources. ^{[28] [29]} Turnout was higher than usual for similar special elections despite Winter Storm Fern hitting the region during the early voting period. ^[30] While most observers considered Republicans favored to win the race, they conceded that a narrow victory could signal trouble for Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. ^[31] Rehmet won the election in an upset by an unexpectedly large margin, becoming the first Democrat to represent northern Tarrant County in the Senate since before the 1982 election. ^{[32] [33]} Rehmet will not serve any active legislative days during his unexpired term, facing a general election for the seat in November 2026. His situation echoes that of fellow Tarrant County Democrat Dan Barrett, who won a 2007 special election for House District 97 before losing in the 2008 general election by a wide margin. ^[34]

References