A special election in the historically ultra-conservative county of Tarrant, TX ended in a humiliating defeat for Republican, Leigh Wambsganss. Democrat, Taylor Rehmet, a local union leader, crushed the Trump-backed candidate by 57 to 43 percent. This is the first Democratic victory in the Texas county in 36 years, which Trump won by 17 points in the 2024 presidential election.
The loss for Trump is no coincidence: it comes amid growing disapproval with his policies, and popular anger over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which have reached a boiling point in cities like Minneapolis. And the special election loss could spell broader trouble for Trump and the MAGA movement in the midterms, putting the administration’s agenda in danger.
A Growing Crisis: From the Economy to Brutal Anti-immigrant Policies
Trump promised to “make America great again,” but his first year was plagued by disasters that have only deepened in 2026. Tariffs against China, India, and Brazil caused prices of essential goods to skyrocket, hitting the working class hardest while billionaires celebrated tax cuts. These measures have alienated some of the Republican voters who trusted Trump’s promise to lower the cost of living.
And despite coming to power on a promise of ending wars, the president has attacked Venezuela, threatened Iran, and continued U.S. support for Israel despite widespread domestic opposition. Compounding these problems are fractures emerging within his own camp over the Epstein scandal.
Now, people across the United States are openly rejecting ICE’s brutality. After struggles against federal agents in Chicago and Los Angeles, the movement against ICE reached a boiling point in Minneapolis with the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, which generated outrage throughout the country. This, too, has caused tensions within the GOP: Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota, Chris Madel, withdrew his candidacy just after Pretti’s murder, questioning ICE’s actions. It was a major setback for Trump, foreshadowing this defeat in Texas.
Backlash against the administration’s anti-immigration policies have also touched Texas. Stephen Miller, the MAGA mastermind behind the anti-immigrant strategy, imposed quotas of 3,000 daily ICE arrests, forcing brutal raids in neighborhoods, factories, and homes against any Latino workers. Many of these workers sustain the Texas economy, where they already make up more than 40 percent of the population.
Thus, the mass deportation of immigrants — one of Trump’s campaign promises and the glue holding his coalition together — ended up backfiring when the administration tried to take a harder line than communities were willing to bear.
Class Struggle Deepens Ahead of Midterm Elections
The Tarrant county defeat is not an isolated one: Democrats and independents voted en masse while Republicans stayed home, replicating 2025 election trends. Last year, Republicans lost the gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, the mayoral election in Miami, and special elections in Kentucky and Iowa.
Texas is a barometer: if Trump loses in a historic stronghold, what will happen in the November midterm elections? As the Wall Street Journal puts it, “Stephen Miller’s mass deportation strategy is backfiring at the polls,” and risks causing a repeat of the 2018 midterm losses over Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.
The Republican majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate are in jeopardy, opening the door to an opposition Congress that will not only slow down parts of Trump’s agenda but weaken him by opening impeachment proceedings for the remainder of his term. Trump may become a lame duck far before his time.
Of course, the Tarrant county defeat has its limits. Special elections don’t always predict regular election results, and Trump’s base votes in far fewer numbers in local elections. The race also had lower turnout — less than 100,000 votes were cast — likely due to unusually cold weather.
Nonetheless, Trump and his policies are clearly taking a beating. Far from disarming the communities he terrorizes with his anti-immigrant policies, he has radicalized workers and students and spurred them to organize, despite Democrats’ attempts to contain the movement against ICE. This new moment in the class struggle is good news not only for workers and popular sectors, but also for all those targeted by Trump, the head of a declining imperialism that seeks to project its power through arrogance toward Iran, Venezuela, Greenland, and Cuba — and across the entire Western Hemisphere through the Monroe Doctrine.
At the same time, the return of class struggle to the world’s leading imperialist power is bad news for Trump’s allies, from Argentina’s Javier Milei to Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, and for the apologists of the international Far Right. Just as we previously saw dockworkers alongside students in Italy block everything and going on strike for Palestine, the struggle of U.S. communities and workers in defense of migrants are examples to follow across the world.
Originally published in Spanish on Monday, February 2 in La Izquierda Diario.
Translated and adapted by Otto Fors
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