In this image taken from KXAS video, Democratic State Sen-elect Taylor Rehmet speaks Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas, after winning a special election for the Texas state Senate and flipped a reliably Republican district that President Donald Trump won by 17 points in 2024. (KXAS via AP)

Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped a reliably Republican state Senate district in Texas in Saturday’s special election, continuing a string of surprise victories for Democrats across the U.S. in the year since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

The Republican president immediately distanced himself from the loss in a district he’d won by 17 points in 2024.

“I’m not involved in that. That’s a local Texas race,” Trump told reporters Sunday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Yet just a day before the race, Trump had heaped praise on Republican contender Leigh Wambsganss, a conservative activist and entrepreneur, on his social media platform, declaring that she would be “a GREAT Candidate and has my Complete and Total Endorsement.” A longer post came later, in which he urged Texans to get out and vote, describing Wambsganss as a successful entrepreneur and “an incredible supporter” of his Make America Great Again movement.

Despite the plugs, Wambsganss was easily trounced in the Fort Worth-area district by Rehmet, a labor union leader and veteran, for a partial term ending in early January. With almost all votes counted, Rehmet was leading by more than 14 percentage points.

“This win goes to everyday working people,” Rehmet told supporters.

Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called the outcome “a wake-up call for Republicans across Texas,” where the GOP controls every statewide office.

“Our voters cannot take anything for granted,” Patrick wrote on X, while noting low-turnout special elections are always unpredictable. “I know the energy and strength the Republican grassroots in Texas possess. We will come out fighting with a new resolve, and we will take this seat back in November.”

Rehmet’s victory added to the Democrats’ record of overperforming in special elections so far this cycle, beginning in March — when they prevailed in a Pennsylvania legislative district made up of suburbanites and farmers that Democrats hadn’t held in a century — and continuing through to November, when they dominated candidate and ballot contests from Maine to California.

And Zohran Mamdani, an unapologetic Democratic Socialist, was elected mayor of New York City, a Democratic stronghold that saw the highest voter turnout in a mayor’s race in 50 years.

The showings come as Trump’s approval ratings with the public hold steady at around 40%. A January AP-NORC poll found that a majority of U.S. adults disapprove of the way he’s handling foreign policy, trade negotiations and immigration, as well as the economy.