Something extraordinary happened in Fort Worth on Saturday that corporate media barely noticed. A union machinist and Air Force veteran just flipped a district Donald Trump won by 17 points. Not 7 points. Not 10 points. Seventeen. Thom Hartmann breaks it all down for Raw America.
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Taylor Rehmet crushed his Republican opponent by over 14 percentage points in a special election for Texas state senate, turning a seat that had been reliably red for decades into a Democratic victory. The previous occupant, Republican Kelly Hancock, won four straight terms without breaking a sweat before resigning for a statewide position. This wasn’t a purple district trending blue. This was deep red territory that just rejected everything Trump stands for.
The pattern emerging across America should alarm every Republican strategist with half a brain. Since Trump’s second inauguration, Democrats have been cleaning up in special elections from Kentucky to Iowa. They dominated the November elections, winning gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. Even in Tennessee, where a Republican squeaked out a victory in a House special election, the margin was so narrow that Democrats walked away energized rather than defeated.
DNC Chairman Ken Martin nailed it when he called the Texas result “a warning sign to Republicans across the country.” But the warning goes deeper than just electoral losses. Voters are rejecting the cruelty and chaos of Trump’s governance in real time.
Consider what happened to five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos. Immigration agents ripped this kindergartener from his father’s car outside their Minneapolis home on Trump’s first day back in office. They detained him as bait to try capturing his mother. A five-year-old in a bunny hat and plaid coat, traumatized and separated from his family, all to meet deportation quotas.
A federal judge saw through the barbarism immediately, ordering Liam and his father released from a Texas detention center with scorching words about “ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”
Representatives who visited that facility described conditions that would make any parent’s blood run cold. Children mentally broken from trauma. Kids told they’re in school when they’re not. Nearly 4,000 minors booked into immigrant family detention from January through October of last year alone. This isn’t border security. This is state-sanctioned child abuse.
The connection between these stories couldn’t be clearer. Taylor Rehmet ran on protecting jobs, supporting public education, and lowering costs for working families. He’s a machinist who understands what everyday Americans face. His opponent had Trump’s personal endorsement on Truth Social, calling her “an incredible supporter” of the MAGA movement.
Voters chose the union guy over MAGA. In a district Trump won by 17 points.
Meanwhile, Washington continues its dysfunction death spiral. The government shut down Saturday because Republicans can’t govern their way out of a paper bag. The House is scrambling to pass a funding package that the Senate already approved, but Speaker Mike Johnson can’t even get his own caucus in line. His plan to fast-track the bill died when Democrats refused to provide the necessary votes without proper consideration.
The irony is rich. Republicans demanded Democrats split out Department of Homeland Security funding after ICE agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota. The agency terrorizing five-year-olds and executing American citizens can’t get its budget passed through a Republican-controlled House.
Voters are connecting these dots faster than political consultants realize. They see the cruelty toward children like Liam. They watch Republicans shut down the government while pursuing deportation quotas over human decency. They notice that Trump’s first priority wasn’t lowering their grocery bills or fixing healthcare, but ripping families apart.
That’s why Fort Worth matters. That’s why Democrats keep overperforming in special elections. Americans are watching this administration in action and deciding they want no part of it.
The November midterms are nine months away. If Republicans think this Texas earthquake is an isolated tremor, they’re in for a catastrophic awakening. Voters just delivered a message louder than any poll: cruelty isn’t a winning platform, and working people will choose labor leaders over MAGA activists every single time.
The question isn’t whether Republicans will lose seats in November. It’s how many, and whether they’ll learn anything before voters finish delivering the verdict on Trump’s America.
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