Democrat and union leader Taylor Rehmet has defeated conservative activist Leigh Wambsganss in the special election to fill the District 9 seat in the Texas Senate, which has been empty since last June when Republican Kelly Hancock resigned to take over as Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Hancock had held the District 9 seat since 2012. Before that the seat had been in Republican hands since at least the late 1980s, making it one of the most reliably red districts in the state.