About this office
There are only 31 State Senators for all of Texas, and every bill has to get past them. Who you elect as your State Senator can be the difference between a bill becoming a law that changes lives for the better — or being left to die. Yours represents Hays County and the counties around it, and once elected, sits for four years. It's a small club with a lot of quiet power, and this is one of the few times you get a say in who's in it.
Candidates
Leigh WambsganssBefore politics, she spent years as a TV news anchor and reporter, then ran a real estate firm before becoming a top executive at a Christian cellphone company.
About Leigh
Wambsganss is chief communications officer of Patriot Mobile and executive director of its political action committee, Patriot Mobile Action, which has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into conservative Tarrant County school board and legislative races. A longtime Tarrant County GOP activist and Southlake resident, she lost the January 2026 special-election runoff for this seat to Taylor Rehmet and is running again for the full term in November.
Taylor RehmetHe joined the Air Force at 19, spent four years fixing electrical systems on planes in North Dakota, then became an aircraft mechanic at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth.
About Taylor
Rehmet grew up in Garland, Texas, the son of an airline mechanic and a salon worker, and says he shifted from a Republican upbringing to the Democratic Party after seeing what his union did for young workers. He now serves as president of his local and state chapters of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and in January 2026 he pulled off a major upset, becoming the first Democrat to hold this seat since 1991 in a district Trump won by 17 points.