Taylor Rehmet, machinist and union leader, wins Texas State Senate special election

Taylor Rehmet, a 33-year-old machinist, Air Force veteran and union leader, won a State Senate special election on Saturday in a district in and around Fort Worth and its suburbs, defeating a hard-line Republican by 14 percentage points, The New York Times reported. Mr. Rehmet said he shifted toward the Democratic Party after getting a factory job in his 20s and experiencing union benefits and workplace protections.

He works at the Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth as a machinist, said he is ‘‘not interested in the cultural war issues’’ and has focused his campaign on pay and economic concerns. He told The Times, ‘‘If we had this, the middle class would be stronger.’’ The victory came in a district that President Trump carried by more than 17 points in 2024 and catapulted the first-time, little-known candidate to national attention in an unusually timed local special runoff.

The seat was being filled for the remainder of the year. The win also joined a broader Democratic push for working-class and union-connected candidates, The Times said, noting other recent or current campaigns including Graham Platner in Maine, Nathan Sage in Iowa and Dan Osborn in Nebraska, and at least a dozen House runs by union or working-class candidates such as Bob Brooks, Johnny Garcia, Jamie Ager and Brian Poindexter.

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