Trump Feigns Ignorance on SD 9 Disaster
after Multiple Plugs for Losing Republican
Capitol Inside
February 2, 2026
President Donald Trump appeared to have a severe case of memory loss if he wasn't simply acting on Sunday when he claimed to be unaware of a special Texas Senate runoff that a Republican who he endorsed at least three times with glowing praise lost badly in a district that had been red for more than four entire decades.
“I’m not involved at that," Trump told reporters who sought his reaction to Democrat Taylor Rehmet's surprisingly easy win over Leigh Wambsganss in the special Senate District 9 overtime vote on Saturday. "That’s a local Texas race.”
Rehmet defeated Wambsganss by more than 14 points with 57 percent of the runoff vote in the Tarrant County district that Trump himself won by 17 points 14 months ago. Wamsbganss appeared to be a slam-dunk favorite when she entered the fight for the Senate opening - and Republicans thought she would be a lock to claim the seat in the runoff after a runner-up finish in the initial election in November when GOP voters split support between a second Republican and her.
The special election runoff in SD 9 was the first significant test of the national political climate in the early stages of the midterm elections in Trump's second term. No one on either side of the aisle thought Rehmet would win in OT - and the Democrats were preparing to declare a moral victory if he came closer than candidates for his party had in the past.
Trump's intense involvement on Wambsganss' behalf with a pair of Truth Social plugs in the final two days before the runoff vote was a significant reason why most everyone on both sides of the aisle believed she would win even if the final tally turned out to be close by SD 9 standards.
Trump endorsed Wambsganss for the first time in August in a move that she promoted at the top of her page on X throughout the entire race.
Trump made another pitch for Wambsganss in a Truth Social post in the stretch before the overtime vote in SD 9 - and he followed it up in a more extensive and flattering endorsement on the eve of the election. The president described Wambsganss a "phenomenal" candidate who had his "Compete and Total Endorsement" for the election the next day. Trump said that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick needed Wambsganss to prevail in the special SD 9 election to keep the Democrats from turning Texas blue.
After dodging several additional question on the outcome in SD 9, Trump acknowledged that he knew that the special election was taking place in Texas but had no details on it. "No, I don’t know anything about it," Trump said before amending the statement. "I mean I know there’s a race going there. That’s too bad. What can I say? I have nothing to do with it.”
Trump's repeated pleas for Wambsganss appeared to have no impact in the second round in the Senate district where Rehmet claimed 56 percent of the early vote and capped it off with 58 percent of the ballots cast on the day of the runoff election.
Wambsganss didn't
mention address the president's involvement in the runoff in an interview with conservative talk show host Mark Davis on Dallas radio on Monday. Wambsganss blamed the outcome on Republicans failing to go to the polls for the runoff vote.
“Politics is cyclical, and the bottom line is Republicans did not show up,” Wambsganss said. She suggested that GOP voters don't understand the nature of the stakes when they stay home for an election. She hinted at animosity between Republicans played a role in the turnout operation's terrible performance in a race that she'd been a prohibitive favorite at the outset.
"Republicans need to realize what the true threat is," Wambsganss asserted on the program. "This is a time where we should be coming together in Tarrant County and realizing the real threat isn't a Republican you disagree with, you know, 20 percent of the time. It's the Democrat who wants open borders, wants to take your rights away, wants to puts boys and men in girls sports and locker rooms and bathrooms."
The total number of votes cast in the special SD 9 runoff was 25 percent lower than the amount that the three candidates in the field initially shared in the initial election on November 4. Rehmet's total vote in OT was 4.2 percent lower than it had been last fall while Wambsganss saw her total tally drop 5.3 percent in the second election.
Governor Greg Abbott promised that Wambsganss would win as a product of a well-tuned voter turnout effort in the SD 9 runoff. But Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who controls a PAC that spent more than $750,000 on the Wambsganss campaign, attributed her defeat to complacency among the party base in a post on X on Sunday.
"Low turnout special elections are always unpredictable," Patrick said. "The results from SD 9 are a wake-up call for Republicans across Texas. Our voters cannot take anything for granted. I know the energy and strength the Republican grassroots in Texas possess. We will come out fighting with a new resolve, and we will take this seat back in November. We will keep Texas red."
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