Donald Trump’s former press secretary has blasted the warning siren after the GOP suffered a humiliating electoral defeat in Texas.
“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,” Sean Spicer, Trump’s first White House press secretary in 2017, told viewers of his podcast The Huddle on Monday.
“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 said. “This time, if you don’t get the message, enjoy Speaker Hakeem Jeffries.”
In a remarkable turn, Democrat Taylor Rehmet captured a state Senate seat on Saturday for a Texas district that Trump won by 17 points last year.
Rehmet, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and an experienced union representative, defeated Republican challenger Leigh Wambsganss by 57 to 43 percent in a special election. That actually represents an overall swing of 31 points, by far the worst in a series of electoral upsets for the Republicans since last autumn.
Trump has sought to distance himself from the results, despite personally calling on voters to back the Republican candidate. “I’m not involved in that,” he told reporters Sunday. “That’s a local Texas race.”
Other GOP leaders have nevertheless acknowledged the outcome as a sobering defeat for the party.
“The results from SD9 are a wake-up call for Republicans across Texas,” Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick posted on X Sunday, adding he trusts party loyalists to “come out fighting with a new resolve” so as to “keep Texas red.”
The defeat extends a pattern of Democratic gains in special elections during Trump’s second term.
Notable blue victories have included gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, as well as left-wing populist Zohran Mamdani’s resounding success in New York City’s mayoral election.
Those results signal a fierce battle for Republicans ahead of this year’s crucial midterm elections.
Latest polling by Emerson College found that as of January, Democrats hold a roughly 6-point lead over the GOP in voter intention ahead of races for control of the House and Senate.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on this story.
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