Double victory in Texas Mood test for Trump: Democrats take back a seat in parliament
Two elections, one signal: in Texas, the Democrats have won twice and put a damper on the Republicans. The results are seen as the first test of sentiment for President Donald Trump.
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- The Democrats have scored two by-election victories in Texas, which are seen as a mood test for President Donald Trump.
- Christian Menefee filled a previously vacant Democratic seat in the US House of Representatives, while Taylor Rehmet surprisingly won a decades-old Republican seat in the Texas Senate.
- According to the Associated Press, both successes point to an increased mobilization of Democrats under the current Trump administration.
The Democrats have won two important by-election victories in Texas. In the US House of Representatives, Christian Menefee won a seat that had become vacant, thereby reducing the already narrow Republican majority. At the same time, Democrat Taylor Rehmet surprisingly won a seat in the Texas Senate, which had been considered safely Republican for decades.
Menefee prevailed in a run-off election in the Houston area against Amanda Edwards. He is the district attorney for Harris County and succeeds the late Democratic representative Sylvester Turner, the former mayor of Houston.
The constituency is considered clearly Democratic and had been vacant for almost a year. At his victory party, Menefee addressed President Donald Trump directly. According to AP, he said the result was a mandate to fight Trump's agenda and investigate alleged misconduct.
The long vacancy of the seat was politically controversial. Republican governor Greg Abbott did not schedule the first round of elections until November 2025, even though Sylvester Turner had already died in March. According to the AP, Democrats accused him of deliberately delaying the date in order to give the Republicans in the House of Representatives a temporary advantage.
Taylor Rehmet's victory in a by-election for the Texas State Senate - comparable to a cantonal parliament in Switzerland - attracted additional attention. Rehmet won a constituency in the Fort Worth area that Trump had won by a margin of 17 percentage points in the 2024 elections.
He beat Republican Leigh Wambsganss by a clear margin and ended up with a lead of more than 14 percentage points. "This victory belongs to working people," Rehmet told his supporters, according to AP.
The seat became vacant because Republican incumbent Kelly Hancock resigned to take a statewide office. Hancock had easily defended the district four times, and Republicans had held it for decades. Trump had publicly endorsed Wambsganss on election day. Despite the double victories, the Republicans still retain a clear majority in the Texas parliament overall.