Mastodawn

‘Earthquake of biblical proportions’ as Democrat flips deep-red Texas State Senate seat

https://lemmy.world/post/42514180

‘Earthquake of biblical proportions’ as Democrat flips deep-red Texas State Senate seat - Lemmy.World

In a speech before cheering supporters, Democrat Taylor Rehmet dedicated his victory “to everyday working people.” Democrats scored a major upset on Saturday, as machinist union leader Taylor Rehmet easily defeated Republican opponent Leigh Wambsganss in a state senate special election held in a deep-red district that Donald Trump carried by 17 percentage points in 2024. With nearly all votes counted, Rehmet holds a 14-point lead in Texas’ Senate District 9, which covers a large portion of Tarrant County. Republican opponent Wambsganss conceded defeat in the race but vowed to win an upcoming rematch in November. “The dynamics of a special election are fundamentally different from a November general election,” Wambsganss said. “I believe the voters of Senate District 9 and Tarrant County Republicans will answer the call in November.”

HellsBelle Feb 1

Republican opponent Wambsganss conceded defeat in the race but vowed to win an upcoming rematch in November.

Rematch??

It’s just a game for some people.

Avid Amoeba Feb 1

It is a game for people who can spend over $2M on a campaign like this and probably do it again a few months later.

TryingSomethingNew Feb 1

Leigh was bankrolled by two PACs, one of which is owned by a couple of billionaires.

HellsBelle Feb 1

As TryingSomethingNew said above he might jusy get lucky, because without the Texas Senate sitting before Nov the GOP will have little cannon fodder to blast him with.

One would almost wish there were more upcoming elections like this.

TryingSomethingNew Feb 1

This was a special election to fill a spot. The prior person (Kelly Hancock) quit to become state comptroller. These two will be running in the fall, though I wonder if the groups (including some with ties to white nationalism) that spent $2.5m on her will do so again in the fall. He raised $380k, mostly small donors.

Fun fact - Texas senate doesn’t meet this year, so he might not have a ton to do before the next election, but he’ll run as an incumbent, will be getting ready for next year’s session, and it’s also a nice pants-shitting moment for the Tarrant county Republican Party which is already in the midst of a party purity jihad.

(Seriously, they’re suing and being sued by other republicans about being removed from republican primaries, as well as suing to have democrats removed from Democrat primaries)

HellsBelle Feb 1

New soap opera – As Texas Turns

TryingSomethingNew Feb 1

Ha! It has to actually turn. We’ll see what fall looks like.

The hell? The Texas senate only meets for 140 days in odd years? How do they get anything done?

TryingSomethingNew Feb 1

It’s even crazier than that. If I remember right, every single law is a change to the Texas constitution.

There is also a saying that we would be better off if it were held for two days every 140 years. And there have been some bills that have died (DMCA, IIRC) because they couldn’t get through committee in time, so the “have to be passed this year” had to wait 2 more years.

But they can and will call “special session” for the sorriest of reasons.

Wambsganss

I know this is a tangent, but does the bible contain many earthquakes?

biblerepository.com/bible-verses-about-earthquake…

Yes, though based on the list there sounds like the most-dramatic ones there are in Revelation, which is a prophetic vision of the future, rather than about the past.

Revelation 6:12-17

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”

35 Important Bible Verses About Earthquakes (Explained) - Bible Repository

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything

Bible Repository

Paul and Silas get broken out of jail by an earthquake

RockBottom Feb 2

This is not going to solve the contradictions of capital, though.

Its a minor rumble until its multiple GOP upsets. Who is to say this guy really is a democrat?

Branch_Ranch Feb 2

There’s been many other dem upsets, but I believe this is the largest so far. Dems are out performing Kamala by around 15 points I think, which opens up quite a few up coming races if the trend continues.

Like that would change anything, your “Dems” are just as corrupt as your “Republicans”

LittleBorat3 Feb 2

So how much of last year’s shit would have happened with the Dems exactly?

How much of this shit would have happened if they were actually against it?

lmmarsano Feb 3

All of it: most of them were actually against it. You understand a minority party ain’t got much power? Even less with their multiple factions not all voting the same? They entirely voted against the Big Beautiful Bill (senate vote & house vote). The vast majority voted to keep the shutdown (senate vote & house vote). It’s a consistent pattern.

None of it suffices: even with the vast majority of the party opposing the administration, they lack leverage until their opposition starts defecting. Until government starts checking the administration’s illegitimate actions, it ultimately falls on the people to defy & resist them.

Factions in the Democratic Party (United States) - Wikipedia

Mulligrubs Feb 3

Of course! That’s the good cop/bad cop pattern that is US politics.

Party A makes a horrible mess and makes intractable changes that are never reversed.

Party B “saves” the people with landslide election, making small temporary concessions to much fanfare whilst leaving all of the actual nightmare machine built in the prior decade untouched (example Patriot Act, Citizens United, more).

“We were so close!”

“Just a few more votes!”

“We can’t make these changes overnight”

Stagnate for a generation or so and rake in immense treasures.

“Oh no we’ve printed too much money”, “help all of our manufacturing went to Mexico”, et al spiraling problems and out of control mess.

Party A, the same party that 10-20 years ago wrecked absolutely everything, is here to save the day! Finally! This is the last election! They have had to collect only “significant treasures” for some time, we have to switch it up again so they can now make “immense treasures”.

Parties then actually change and/or eliminate their “platform” and even switch places completely here and there. The “donors” and political elite remain the exact. same. people. The Fed keeps on working, and somehow even with the Fed keeping a firm hand, the banks make record profits. Oh no! they will collapse from their own profiteering fraud, we need to give them tax money so they can make money with the money they already made money with for 20 years. They will pay us back, of course… but only AFTER they “print” all of that money that costs them nothing to print to pay us back with. Wait, they don’t even bother to “print” it, it’s just a number in a server. It’s even easier, the rug pull is so simple. Somehow, every year the banks/corps/robber barons own more land and gold and the actual people own less.

Rinse and repeat from 1970s until today! We will be saved from the villains who saved us from the villains who saved us from those other villains! We’re a democracy, see?

(I hope I’m wrong and instead they have a constitutional convention and SAVE THE WORLD and universal healthcare and “chicken in every pot” New Deal politics and firm corporate control and monopoly busting and separation of church-state cemented and banks removed from banking regulation and so much more. but I don’t think so.)

BurnoutDV Feb 3

I thought it was named “ratched effect” for that reason

samus12345 Feb 3

ratched effect

“My child…”