Ten days after the Blue Wave swept across Texas and the nation, we all know the results of the final tally: U.S. Senator-elect James Talarico defeated Attorney General Ken Paxton by 1.2 million votes, while Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the rest of the GOP statewide ticket lost by roughly 600,000 votes — a stunning swing of over 1.5 million votes from the 2022 midterms.
Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Coming off a tsunami election in Texas and across the country, the smoke is just beginning to clear, but as of today, here’s who made the list:
Last Saturday, President Donald Trump joined more than 100,000 fans to watch the No. 1 ranked University of Texas football team play the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. That same day, millions more Americans from Athens to Oxford to Lubbock to Corvallis tailgated and jammed into stadiums or crowded around TV sets to watch their big Saturday game.
Political scientists routinely describe the current division in American politics as “tribal,” as if the seething intensity each side feels for the other is something new. I was born into a family whose political roots run deep, and I can tell you, unequivocally, that politics has always been tribal.
Sherry Sylvester has been working at the nexus of politics and public policy her entire career, She was part of the original campaign and transition teams of Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and she managed his 2018 re-election campaign. She served as the Senior Advisor to Patrick for almost ten years. She is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think-tank.
Earlier in her career, she worked on the other side of the political spectrum, including serving as Communications Director for Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman ever nominated for Vice President on a major party ticket. She also worked for David Dinkins, a Democrat and the first African-American elected Mayor of New York City. Sherry served for over a decade as the spokesperson and a strategic advisor to Texans for Lawsuit Reform and has led the charge on other public policy reforms including education, immigration and health care. She brings her broad perspective to a regular podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show and a weekly newsletter, 9th & Congress – learn more here.
