Leigh Wambsganss, Chief Communications Officer for Patriot Mobile — the Christian conservative wireless provider in the Fort Worth suburb of Grapevine, Texas with its own PAC, Patriot Mobile Action (which Wambsganss heads) — is the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate in the January 31 special runoff election for Texas’s Senate District 9 seat.
It is an absolute honor to be endorsed by the President of the United States, @realdonaldtrump!
— Leigh Wambsganss (@LeighForTexas) August 20, 2025
No president has done more to secure our border, unleash American energy, and fight for fair trade. As the next State Senator for District 9, I’ll proudly champion America First… pic.twitter.com/TFtze5ltqU
Note: The previous State Senator for District 9, Kelly Hancock, resigned in June to accept the acting role of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Three candidates ran in the November 4 election including Wambsganss, but no one got 50% of the votes, so the two best-performing candidates (Wambsganss and her Democratic opponent Taylor Rehmet) are in a runoff election to determine who will finish out Hancock’s term.
The New York Times today depicted the runoff election in “the once reliably conservative suburbs of Fort Worth” as “a nail-biter for Republicans, who worry that even a narrow G.O.P. victory in the State Senate race could be a bad sign for their midterm prospects.”
MAGA-aligned Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, who runs the State Senate, said, “I’m very concerned about this election.” And Wambsganss herself referred to it as “a canary in a coalmine.”
Note: Wambsganss, a former beauty pageant finalist and TV reporter, said in 2022 that the goal of Patriot Mobile Action was to eliminate “critical race theory” and “LGBTQ indoctrination” from schools in her Tarrant County by successfully electing conservative school board members. At that time, Patriot Mobile’s COO, Jenny Story, said, “If we lose Tarrant County, we lose Texas.”
The choice in Senate District 9 is clear. Taylor Rehmet is a champion for the middle class and REAL Texas values. Leigh Wambsganss is a MAGA paid-to-hate extremist.
— Lone Star Project (@lsptex) January 27, 2026
Say YES to @TaylorRehmetTX in the SD9 special election. pic.twitter.com/rbGXTKaheo
Wambsganss’s Democratic opponent, Taylor Rehmet, is a U.S. Air Force veteran and local union leader who works at the Lockheed Martin fighter jet plant. The 33-year-old is making his political debut with support from parents objecting to GOP policies including book bans enforced by conservative public school boards enabled by Patriot Mobile.
Note: The winner of the special runoff election will serve for the rest of the year. Both Wambsganss and Rehmet have already registered to run again in the November election.
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