Sean Spicer Sounds Alarm Over GOP Defeat In Texas

Republicans have good reason to feel uneasy about this year’s midterm elections after Democrats notched a stunning victory in Texas over the weekend, a former press secretary for President Donald Trump said.

On Monday’s episode of “The Huddle” podcast, Sean Spicer spoke at length about Democrat Taylor Rehmet, who on Saturday flipped a long-held Republican seat in Texas’ 9th State Senate District ― which Trump won by 17 points in 2024 ― in a special election runoff.

Spicer, who served as White House press secretary for the first six months of Trump’s first term, said he’d been in contact with other elected officials in Texas over just how concerned they should be regarding Rehmet’s defeat of his GOP challenger, Leigh Wambsganss.

“Every one of them said, ‘This is a problem.’ One person’s direct quote was, ‘This is 8.5 on the Richter scale,’” he said. “This is a big deal.”

Watch Monday’s episode of “The Huddle” below. Spicer’s comments on Rehmet’s victory start around the 18:09 mark.

Spicer then pointed to Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who on Sunday shared a strongly worded X post in which he said “horrible” Republican voter turnout was to blame for the upset. The post ended with a direct plea to Trump, in which Flynn stated: “this is bad.”

After acknowledging voter turnout was an issue, Spicer said, “The bottom line is if you’re not a little concerned, or a lot concerned, that Tarrant County just flipped 17 points, you have a problem.”

“You can either put your head in the sand as a Republican or as a MAGA loyalist and say, ‘That’s a one-off.’ And a lot of times, I’m one of those people,” he continued. “This time, if you don’t get the message, enjoy Speaker Hakeem Jeffries.”

Rehmet, a union president and Air Force veteran, will be the first Democrat to represent Texas’ 9th Senate District ― situated between Dallas and Fort Worth ― since 1978. The last was Bill Meier, who switched parties to the GOP in 1981.

Though Trump endorsed Wambsganss in a post on his Truth Social platform last week, he’s been quick to distance himself from the election results.

“I’m not involved in that. That’s a local Texas race,” he told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), however, had a more urgent take, calling Rehmet’s victory “a wake-up call for Republicans across Texas.”

“I know the energy and strength the Republican grassroots in Texas possess,” he wrote Sunday on X. “We will come out fighting with a new resolve, and we will take this seat back in November. We will keep Texas red.”