A union machinist just won a Texas State Senate seat Trump carried by 17 points. He was outspent four to one. How did he do it? By tossing out the Democrats’ playbook and running a grassroots economic populist campaign with a strong pro-labor message.

Pundits say Taylor Rehmet's upset in deep-red Texas was a repudiation of Donald Trump. But Rehmet didn’t campaign against Trump — he…