This is obnoxious, but also a little amusing.
Sen. Taylor Rehmet
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is sidelining the Texas Democrat who in January won a stunning upset victory in what had been considered a safe Republican state Senate district.
The Republican did not assign the newly minted lawmaker to any of the chamber’s committees this week, effectively cutting him out of the process that helps to shape future legislation.
Rehmet, a Fort Worth machinist, bashed the move as one that hurts voters and used the snub to raise money for his campaign heading toward the Nov. 3 general election.
“After months of (Senate District 9) having no voice in the Texas Senate, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has chosen to silence our district even further by refusing to assign me to any committee,” Rehmet, 33, said in a statement. “This decision reflects the kind of petty, partisan politics that too often stands in the way of delivering results for working families.”
Rehmet posted his statement on social media and including a link to website for an organization that raises money for Democrats.
“This isn’t about partisan politics. It’s about representation. It’s about whether working families in Tarrant County have a seat at the table,” says the message of the organization’s website.
Patrick, a Republican who is seeking a fourth term as the Senate’s presiding officer, had put his significant political clout to boost Republican Leigh Wambsganss during the special election for the Senate to replace longtime Republican Kelly Hancock. Wambsganss, who also had the vocal backing of President Donald Trump, is the GOP’s general election nominee for the seat.
The lieutenant governor said in a post-election social media post that Rehmet’s 57% of the vote — in the district that Donald Trump carried by 17 percentage points in 2024 — was a Republican wake-up call. But, he added, that other recent special election winners also were not immediately appointed to committees.
“Sen. Rehmet won a special election to fill out an unexpired interim term in 2026, in which no bills are filed, voted on, or passed. He has to win in November to serve a full term in the legislature,” Patrick said on X. “If he does win in November, he would be assigned committees like anyone else at the beginning of the next legislative session in January 2027. I explained that to him a month ago.”
As the story notes, the Senate does meet in the interim to consider potential future legislation, so not being on a committee does have a negative effect on Sen. Rehmet, who even if he loses in November is still the elected representative for SD09, which therefore loses out on having a voice in that process. He’s been sworn in, he’s a Senator, he should be assigned to some committees.
If this is the Senate’s norm, then I think it’s a bad one. I’m a little skeptical of that, so I thought I’d do some checking. As it happens, the last Senator to be elected in an even-year special election is my own Senator, Sen. Molly Cook. I called her and asked if she had been assigned to any committees after her election in May 2024. She said no, she was not, and though she thought that was wrong and she should have been assigned, she decided not to make a big deal out of it because she was already heavily involved in various campaign efforts for that November. The last such Senators before Sen. Cook were Sens. Sarah Eckhardt in SD14 and Drew Springer in SD30, both elected in 2020. Springer is no longer in the Senate and Sen. Eckhardt’s press releases only go back to 2021, so I can’t say for sure what happened with them.
Again, it may be that Sen. Patrick is telling the truth and that this is The Way It Has Always Been. I still approve of Sen. Rehmet kicking up some dust about it. It’s about representation, and there’s no good reason not to honor that. Whoever is the next Lite Guv, I hope they change this practice.