Dem Claims Mayor Post in GOP Stronghold
as Buzz Kill after Republican SD 4 Blowout
Capitol Inside
May 5, 2026
A victory by a Democrat in the mayor's race in a major Texas Republican stronghold took all of the sting out a GOP win in a special state Senate race in a nearby district where Brett Ligon prevailed by a larger margin than Donald Trump enjoyed there when he reclaimed the presidency in 2024.
A Montgomery County native who'd served as district attorney there since 2008, Ligon crushed Democrat Ron Angeletti by 50 points with 75 percent of the vote in the special election for the Senate District 4 seat that Republican Brandon Creighton gave up to become the chancellor for the Texas Tech University System. Trump defeated Kamala Harris in SD 4 by 34 percentage points.
The special Texas Senate contest gave the GOP a rare opportunity to celebrate ahead of the 2026 midterm elections in a country where Democrats have flipped several dozen legislative districts during the current cycle while Republicans have failed to turn a single blue seat red. Democrats had been overperforming consistently in races for seats that have remained in the past 18 months.
But the Democratic candidate in SD 4 was never competitive - raising less than one dollar for every $78 that Ligon rounded up for the open contest in the district that's anchored by Montgomery County where more than half of its population is based. Ligon reported donations of $926,250 for the special fight in SD 4 where Angeletti raised less than $12,000 for his campaign and spent less than half of that.
After Democrats bragged about fielding candidates in every race for the Texas Legislature and Congress in 2026, the special battle that Ligon won in a landslide showed that the state's minority party isn't taking every contest seriously despite the presence of names on the ballot. Ligon and Angeletti will meet in a rematch in the general election as the nominees for their respective parties in the Senate district that includes Chambers County and parts of Harris, Jefferson and Galveston counties on or near the Texas coast.
But Democrat Quentin Wiltz ruined the party for the GOP when he beat Republican Tony Carbone in the battle for the Pearland mayor's post in a patch of the Houston area that's been heavily Republican. Wiltz emerged triumphant from a nail-biter with 51 percent of the vote on Saturday.
Candidates for local offices in Texas don't run as members of a political party. But the battles lines in the Pearland municipal contest were clearly drawn between Republicans and Democrats there.
"This is historic and we will celebrate the success and continue the work," the Brazoria Democratic Party said in a statement on the Pearland mayoral competition. "November is right around the corner and we have an entire slate of highly qualified candidates ready to serve."
The first significant sign of a potential blue wave in the making came in January when Fort Worth Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped the Senate District 9 seat in a runoff in a special election. Rehmet beat a Republican who'd been a heavy favorite by 14 points in a Tarrant County district where Trump won by 17 less than 14 months before.
Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick - the Texas Senate president - doubled down on a prediction that Leigh Wambsganss would unseat Rehmet in a rematch in November after the runaway Ligon victory on Saturday. But Patrick thought Wambsganss would win the SD 9 seat with ease in the special election when she didn't even come close.
Ligon won the GOP nomination for the fall in SD 4 with 74 percent of the vote in a primary fight with Charlie Miller. Angeletti ran unopposed in the primary election on March 3. But Democrats haven't been taking the race seriously - as evidence by their candidates' lack of funds for the special election..
more to come ...
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