National pundits are analyzing Texas special election results from Jan. 31. For the most part, they are getting it wrong, even though the winner for State Senator in Fort Worth, Taylor Rehmet, made it simple for them when his overwhelming victory was registered: “This win goes to everyday working people!”
What the pundits ignore is that organized labor provided the shock troops for the entire campaign. The state federation of labor provided guidance while union members from both Tarrant and Dallas County did the work on voters’ phones and porches. The Texas Alliance for Retired Americans set up their own retiree-to-retiree phone banks, because seniors tend to vote when others don’t, and an isolated special election was sure to have low turnout.
Only 15% of voters turned out. Rehmet took 57%. Working people jumped for joy! The loser snarled about a future defeat for Rehmet, and the powerful Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick remonstrated. Donald Trump pretended that he hadn’t been involved, even though he had endorsed Rehmet’s super-MAGA opponent, Leigh Wambsganss, and published several messages of support.
“This is a huge win for Texas workers. Taylor embodies what it means to be a union leader — working together to address the struggles of real, everyday Texans,” said Texas AFL-CIO President Leonard Aguilar. “While state parties are trying to reconnect with the working class, we’re running union members up and down the ballot — and winning. Taylor’s historic win kicks off a slate of rank-and-file union members running for office to fight for all of us.”
Civil rights activists took special note of this contest. Former Mayor Pro Tem and NAACP leader Casey Thomas called KNON’s “Workers Beat” radio program early on Election Day. He urged all African American voters to turn out for Rehmet. Going further, he blasted Wambsganss as a leading suppressor of critical race theory.
The importance of the Texas State Senate special election had been noted in the New York Times and other national publications. Rehmet was unknown in electoral politics. He had been an aircraft mechanic at Lockheed-Martin in Fort Worth and a statewide union leader for the Machinists’ union.
His opponent had a big reputation among Republicans for her work in getting area school boards to elect extreme right-wingers. She bragged about her close relationship to Trump and MAGA-Republican policies.
Senate District #9 voted for Trump in 2024 by 17 points. Two Republicans faced Rehmet in the first round. Together, they had more than $3 million against Rehmet’s reported $160,000. His biggest donor was his own union, and unions are constrained to donate no more than $10,000. Rehmet gathered money from small donations, but the major billionaire donations were all against him.
The billionaires put up more than $2 million for Rehmet’s opponent in the runoff. PAC money was involved, but it would be difficult to find out just who spent what. News articles agree that Rehmet was outspent ten to one.
The raw data on the runoff vote suggests an interesting twist. From the first round to the runoff, Rehmet lost about 2,000 votes. The total vote on the Republican side, however, nosedived over 20,000 votes.
Does it mean that Republicans forgot to vote? Did news from Minnesota about MAGA violence and repression unnerve Republican voters in Texas? Was it a strong rejection of their candidate? Or does it simply mean that the MAGA Republicans didn’t have the ground forces that labor provided for Rehmet?
Jan. 31 was also the date for a special election between two Houston Democrats seeking an unexpired term in the House of Representatives. Labor won that one, too.
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