In the final countdown to next Tuesday’s election Sherry talks with Chuck DeVore, Chief of National Initiatives at TPPF, about the why the founders created the Electoral College and why it is critically important that it not be abolished.
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Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. We are now sliding down the final 10 day countdown to Election Day as we try to discern what the long lines of people standing outside polling locations—at least where I live in San Antonio—are really thinking. As the final battle rages, here’s who made the list this week:
Winner: So far, GOP Early Voters
Derek Ryan is the Texas guy who analyzes who votes in Texas elections. He’s not a pollster or a spin guy, he just looks at who has actually voted and links them to their primary voting history. Ryan is a Republican but he is respected by both sides and, amazingly, even the Texas media, which spends lots of time every four years pushing the narrative that Texas is turning blue, or Texas will be turning blue, or, Texas is probably already blue, but Republicans won’t let the “real people” vote. Ryan doesn’t bother with any of that. He just does the math. His latest report reveals that 2,833,623 Texans voted in the first three days of Early Voting.
And 1,102,052 of those voters are people who have previously only voted in Republican primary elections. Another 715,180 are people who have only voted in Democrat primaries. And 63,460 additional voters are people who most recently voted in a Republican primary but have also voted in Democrat primaries at some point in their voting lives. That’s compared to 33,847 voters who are Democrats with the same mixed primary record. If you believe the adage that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, you can draw conclusions from those numbers, as long as you remember that an adage is not a fact.
Ryan reports that almost a million other Texans who only vote in General Elections, have voted in both Democrat and Republican primaries or have no voting history at all, also cast their ballots in the first three days. That’s what we know. Everything else is speculation. You can sign up for Ryan’s Early Voting reports here.
Loser: Harris’ Trip to Texas
I frequently caution conservatives against thinking that Democrats’ are politically stupid, just because their policy positions are so often asinine. However, as Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick succinctly pointed out yesterday, the decision by Vice President Kamala Harris to spend one of the final days of her campaign in Texas, when she’s sinking in swing states, is one of the “dumbest political decisions I’ve ever seen.” Patrick rightly pointed out that Harris has no chance of winning Texas or boosting Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Colin Allred to victory over U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, particularly after Allred’s steadfast support for the transgender agenda has been revealed.
Apparently the vice president has forgotten that Texas is ground zero for the over 10 million illegal aliens who have crossed the border on her watch. Since she’s only been to El Paso and Arizona, she may not realize that Texas a state with a 1,254 miles long border with Mexico.
As for bringing Beyoncé to the stage in Houston to help her campaign, it is unlikely it will help Harris and may hurt the big star herself. Just look at another loser this week, Taylor Swift. Despite the fanfare when Swift’s endorsement of Harris was announced, her unfavorable ratings have increased 20 points among Republicans since she declared her support for the vice president. Swift has learned the “Bud Light,” lesson—don’t ‘dis your audience. Swift’s endorsement of Harris barely even raises her popularity among Democrats. She got about 5 points. It is unlikely Beyoncé will have any impact on the election, either.
Beyond dragging celebrities to the stage to endorse her, it is is also tough to figure out why even Democrats are asking why Harris won’t simply answer direct questions about the border, the economy, crime, or anything, really. The vice president’s Town Hall on CNN this week has been panned across the board by her own side with former Obama advisor David Axelrod calling it a trip to “word salad city.”
Winner: Gov. Greg Abbott Takes on Tren De Aragua
When asked about Harris’ visit to the Lone Star State, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suggested she spend her time in Texas declaring the Venezuelan gang, Tren De Aragua, a foreign terrorist organization, as he has done. Abbott notes that Harris is visiting Houston, where 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was raped and murdered by two Tren de Aragua gang members in June. Although Nungaray’s murderer was released on her watch, Harris has yet to apologize to her family or the other victims of violent crimes perpetrated by criminal illegal aliens. Abbott is right to press her on this outrageous omission every moment she is here.
Loser: DEI in the Military
Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Colin Allred helped shine a light on the problems with the United States military when it was revealed that he had just signed a letter asking Republicans to remove restrictions in the National Defense Reauthorization Act that would have prohibited the military from performing sex change operations on soldiers and allowing pride flags and drag shows on military bases. A Wall Street Journal op-ed this morning explains how such woke, DEI policies are fueling the decline in military enlistment.
We know that 80% of people who volunteer to serve in the military have family members who also served. But a new survey shows that many military family members no longer recommend that others join up—it’s down almost 20 points. Biden-Harris Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is pushing Biden’s order to embed DEI throughout the ranks of every branch of service, making diversity officially more important than competence, bravery or leadership.
Winner: City of Odessa Frees Women’s Restrooms
Striking a blow for women’s rights and security, the city of Odessa passed an ordinance this week that prohibits individuals from entering the restrooms of the opposite sex. We have fought this war before but Texans now have a clear understanding of the impact of opening women’s restrooms to everyone, and I predict Odessa will not be the only city that weighs in on the side of privacy for women and girls.
You gotta love how the Texas Tribune covered the issue. They put out a news story with the headline: “Odessa bans transgender people from using restrooms that don’t match sex assigned at birth.” So, before you even read the report that women in Odessa won’t have to worry about men coming in their restrooms, you must accept the theory, right there on the page in big baby blacks, that “sex is assigned at birth.” That’s quite a concept to swallow, particularly for anyone who has read a biology book.
Loser: University of Texas, Matthew McConaughey and those bottles on Texas Memorial Field
I am a big fan of Matthew McConaughey, but he was not nearly strong enough in admonishing his fellow Longhorn fans after the Georgia game on Saturday. “Not cool,” doesn’t begin to describe their move to throw bottles and trash on the field at Texas Memorial Stadium to protest a referee’s call. It was very badly done, especially for the team that, until late last Saturday, was ranked number one in the nation. No excuse will suffice.
UT has “Texas” in its name. Texas taxpayers pay for the flag ship school. Because of that, when you are on national television, you are representing the entire state, even Texans who proudly didn’t go to UT. Texas is a symbol of everything that is right about America and our great football teams are one of the ways we show the world who we are. Consequently, folks from the University of Texas can’t behave like a bunch of hockey fans from Saskatoon. Again, badly done.
UT has promised to track down the perpetrators and fine them for their offenses. Perhaps they should deploy the people who picked up the January 6 protesters. They got hundreds of those people using mostly using blurry clips from personal iPhones. The bad Longhorn fans were all on national TV. Should be easier.
Loser: Chicago is most rat infested city in the country.
Chicago was once again named the most rat infested city by Orkin, the pest control company. Chicago has now held the title for a decade. Don’t want to dwell on this yucky fact, but do want to note that no Republican-run city is on the top 10 list of rat-filled towns and no Texas city is in the top 20. Just saying.
Loser: Men Coming for Women’s Golf
Now there are a total of five women’s volleyball teams in the Mountain West that have forfeited their games rather than play San Jose State, whose team includes a man who thinks he’s a woman. The University of Nevada is the latest to bow out despite the administrators’ insistence that the game go on. The players didn’t back down, saying they “refuse[d] to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes” so despite the virtue signals of Nevada University bureaucrats they ultimately had to withdraw because they didn’t have a team.
That same injustice is threatening professional women’s golf. Now, 275 golfers in the LPGA have sent a letter to the LPGA brass saying they don’t want to play against men. This follows the inclusion of Hailey Davidson, a man who says he’s a woman, who is poised to qualify for the LPGA tour, beating out a woman for a coveted spot. The LPGA has developed “gender policies” that allow biological men to compete against women if they have undergone gender reassignment surgery. However, like in Nevada, it appears the folks in charge of the LPGA did not consult with the women who actually play golf before they changed the rules. LPGA players should take the same path as the volleyball players at the University of Nevada and simply take their sticks and walk away.
Another Big Game Day
Texas plays giant-killer Vanderbilt in Nashville tomorrow at 3:15 p.m. and Texas A&M will play LSU tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. Hopefully, no fines will result.
Have a great weekend!
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
It is not a stretch to look at the present state of the campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred and conclude that they have been stalled by their opponent’s attacks on their support for the transgender agenda.
You could see the exasperation on Harris’ face last week when she was asked about the Trump attack ad against her, which reminds Americans that she boasted about helping a murderer get a sex change operation in prison and pledged to work to ensure that every man in prison who claims to be a woman can get the same operation.
In her reply, Harris tried to wave the issue away as irrelevant. She called it “very remote from the concerns of the American people.”
She is right that the transgender agenda does not rival the economy, the border and crime among voter priorities. Still, since the Trump ads started running with the tagline, “Harris is for ‘they/them,’” she has lost her slight edge in the national polls.
While the transgender issue may not be a top concern for voters, it is having an impact because it provides immediate insight on whether a candidate has common sense, supports women and families, and understands that the basic science which dictates that one’s sex is not a choice. Importantly, unlike fracking and other issues, Harris has not reversed her position on the sex change operations for prisoners or her support for the transgender issue. In the Trump ad she says, “I took the power I had and used it to push the [transgender] agenda.”
The transgender agenda includes support for boys playing in girls’ sports, pushing puberty blockers and sexual transition surgery for children, spending taxpayer dollars for sex change surgery in prisons and the military, and opening public venues for drag shows, even for children.
Harris’ failure to denounce any of this is making a dent in the massive gender gap Harris has long held with white suburban women who are among the last remaining swing voters and now must weigh whether they value unlimited access to abortion more than a candidate who supports the idea that men can get pregnant.
For mothers, the issue is not abstract, but an everyday challenge as their children come home from school with the news that a boy they’ve gone to school with for years is now a girl, or that they got in trouble for forgetting to use the right pronouns. Mothers of volleyball players on the West Coast must now worry that administrators at their daughters’ colleges will force them to play San Jose State, which has a male player who routinely out-spikes every woman on the court.
In the blur of campaign rhetoric at this point, the transgender agenda is one of the few issues where undecided or wavering voters can see a clear difference between Harris and Trump. When the candidates talk about the border, the economy, crime or supporting workers and the middle-class, it is often a waste of time because Democrats use their own phony data and they don’t back down from it, even when it is clearly detached from reality. President Joe Biden insists that, thanks to him, the economy is the best it has ever been. Border czar and Vice President Kamala Harris says 10 million illegals crossing the border is not her fault and even if it was, it’s not really a problem. As for violent crime, Democrats repeatedly tell us that that murder, robbery and assault are all down, even as the FBI quietly reported last week they have been under-reporting crime data for the past two years.
However, Harris and the Democrats have not succeeded in convincing a majority, even among people who like them, that children should be able to declare themselves members of the opposite sex, virtually as soon as they can talk, based entirely on how the child says he or she feels.
When Republicans remind voters that the Biden-Harris administration threatened to pull funding to school districts that did not push the transgender agenda including letting boys who think they are girls go into the girls restrooms and mandating that teachers not inform parents if their child is pretending to be the opposite sex while at school, it makes a difference. That’s why even Democrats admit the transgender ads against them are working.
Most Democrats don’t push back on these attacks. They know their support for men who think they are women and taxpayer funded sex change surgeries are not a winning issue, so they try to change the subject. They also don’t want to annoy their progressive base.
However, here in Texas, Democrat Colin Allred is trying to walk back U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s transgender attack ad against him and you can see his dilemma. Allred got his first campaign ads up months ago and has spent millions trying to convince voters that he is a regular Texas guy, certainly not one of those lefty, pro-trans crazies who hang out in his party. He tried to dismiss the attack ad against him on his support for the transgender agenda with his own ad saying: “I don’t want boys playing girls sports or any of this ridiculous stuff that Ted Cruz is saying.” The “ridiculous stuff” is, of course, Allred’s record.
Allred voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act and he is a co-sponsor of the Transgender Bill of Rights. He also supported the Equality Act which would have mandated that anyone be allowed in all public facilities including bathrooms, changing rooms and locker rooms, regardless of their gender.
This is not ancient history. Late last month Allred joined a hundred Democrats who signed a letter to the House and Senate Armed Services Committee asking that they remove restrictions Republicans put in the National Defense Reauthorization Act that prohibit the military from performing sex change surgeries. The Democrats also wanted to remove prohibitions against drag shows and flying “pride flags” on military bases.
When asked why he signed the letter, Allred said he didn’t want to second guess military leaders. Instead, the Dallas congressman said he wants to make sure the military has “the tools they need to protect our country.”
It’s not exactly clear how drag shows on military bases “help protect the country,” but normalizing them and giving them government support, as the Democrats who signed this letter propose, is just one more way to attack the science that says sex is binary. It also cuts into the women’s vote because women voters know drag shows are a free space to attack and belittle them.
America doesn’t want this. The Washington Post reports that while most Americans do not believe transgender people should be discriminated against, a majority believe gender is determined at birth and an even larger percentage don’t want boys or men playing in women’s sports. Approval of the transgender agenda is declining as more Americans see and understand what it really means.
The election is fast approaching and it is clear that when the choice is the transgender agenda, he and she is winning big over “they/them.”
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. It is now 17 days until the Nov. 5 election, but Texans can begin going to the polls Monday morning and since voter registration is off the charts—up almost 3 million since 2020—early voting sites will undoubtedly be busy. The election will be a fight to the finish, but the list this week also includes some winners who made history. Here’s the breakdown:
Winner: Netanyahu and the People of Israel
By killing Hamas terrorist Yahya Sinwar, the last Hamas leader who remained standing, Israel has wiped out the terrorist organization that attacked them on Oct. 7. Israel did exactly what any country should do in response to an evil terrorist attack—it completely destroyed the perpetrators. It is important to note that while the U.S. was clearly providing weapons and tactical support to Israel, the strategic victory was accomplished in spite of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not acquiesce to their demands that he pull back and go slow, including that they stay out of Rapha. If he had, Israel would not have been able to eliminate Sinwar. The Washington Post reports that Biden and Harris still believe the goal is a ceasefire. The Israelis rightly believe by destroying the Hamas and the infrastructure of Hezbollah, they have laid the groundwork for a surrender—a word that has yet to be uttered by the White House.
Winner: Elon Musk’s Rocket Returns
Most of the world has been watching space launches all our lives. Reaching for the stars is one endeavor in which humanity is united (more or less) and there’s nothing quite as glorious as watching a massive booster rocket lift a space craft into the sky. But this week we saw a spectacular change when the booster rocket did not fall away as debris, but instead floated back to the launch pad. Elon Musk has made another massive advance in space flight and it all happened in Boca Chica, Texas. So glad he’s here.
Winner: Sen. Ted Cruz’s Conservative Record (Plus he’s up by 7)
I’ve not heard anyone suggest that Cruz did not win the debate with his Democrat opponent, Congressman Colin Allred, on Tuesday, where they played out a dynamic we’re also seeing in the presidential campaign. Cruz repeatedly spoke about his record on issues that are priorities for Texans — the open border, the economy, crime rates and pushing the transgender agenda into our schools and communities. Allred, hit Cruz hard on abortion but he didn’t come close to knocking him out. Allred’s only other strategy was to level personal attacks at Cruz, calling him a “threat to democracy.” The charge was laughable. National Democrats have stopped using it on Trump because it doesn’t work.
Cruz was nicer than Allred, noting at one point that it is a testament to America that Allred, the son of a single mother from Brownsville and Cruz, son of an immigrant, are both honored to represent Texas in the U.S. Congress.
After weeks of watching the polls tighten in this race, the University of Texas Politics Poll released this morning shows Cruz with a 7 point lead. Earlier this week the Hobby Poll out of the University of Houston showed Cruz up 4. One interesting point in the Hobby Poll is that Allred and Cruz are tied among Hispanic voters. Beto O’Rourke beat Cruz by 27 points among Hispanics when he ran against him in 2018.
Loser: Vice President fails to acknowledge failures—or apologize
Fox News anchor Bret Baier’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday worked like a Rorschach test for the country’s political pundits. Conservatives saw it as a long overdue confrontation for Harris with questions she has refused to answer and mistakes she won’t acknowledge, like how long she knew that President Biden was not on the top of his game even though she said he was. Harris supporters saw the Fox interview as an “ambush.”
The fact that she did the interview speaks volumes — it is a progressive admission that Fox, unlike MSNBC or CNN, is America’s most watched cable news network whose audience includes Democrats and Independents as well as conservatives. More than 7.1 million people watched the interview.
Harris refused to acknowledge the millions of illegal aliens who have flooded the border on her watch and she refused to specifically apologize for the deaths of three young women Baier questioned her about who were killed by illegal aliens. Instead, she blamed most everything on Donald Trump, who she mentioned 113 times in the interview.
When Baier asked her about Trump’s clearly effective ad revealing her commitment to providing sex change surgeries for illegal immigrants in prison she described it as “very remote from the concerns of the American people.” That’s a typical Democrat mistake. While the transgender issue does not rank as high as the economy, the border, and crime among priority concerns for voters, the issue provides quick insight into whether a candidate has common sense, supports women and families, and the science which dictates that one’s sex is not a choice. The fact that Kamala is running with the ‘they/them’ crowd, speaks volumes, and is one reason the newest polls show she has lost the lead she held for the past month.
Loser: The FBI crime statistics were wrong, too
Was it just a month ago that the New York Times and others reported that the U.S. Labor Department claimed almost a million more jobs had been added to the work force than were actually created? The adjusted data put a damper on the Biden-Harris administration’s insistence that their economic programs were working.
Yesterday we learned that the FBI has quietly “adjusted” the crime statistics to show that crime has actually increased by 4.9%, not decreased 1.7% as they previously reported. We all remember that how ABC News anchor David Muir “fact checked” former President Trump during his debate with Harris last month, claiming that FBI data shows “overall violent crime is coming down in this country.”
That 4.9% increase is the result of 1,197,930 violent crimes reported in 2021 and 1,256,671 reported in 2022.
Speaking of jobs, when the national jobs reports come out a couple weeks ago, I noted that it always appears to me that the Biden-Harris administration takes credit for jobs that are actually created in Texas. This morning, Gov. Greg Abbott released a report showing that Texas has outpaced the U.S. in job growth once again.
Loser: Biden Forgives More Student Loan Debt
Defying a ruling by the United States Supreme Court (would that be a threat to democracy?), the Biden-Harris Administration announced another $4.5 billion in student loan debt relief this week, bringing the total amount of taxpayer dollars used to pay off student loans to $175 billion. Vice President Harris also promised a million $20,000 loans to African-American entrepreneurs, surely related to polls suggesting she is losing the votes of black men. She says the loans are “fully forgivable.” If that’s true, is it really a loan. Isn’t it a gift? Just asking.
Winner: Sen. J.D. Vance, “Do you hear yourself.”
When ABC News anchor Martha Raddatz snarled at Republican Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance this week that “only a handful of apartment complexes” in Colorado have been taken over by violent gangs of illegal aliens,” Vance quickly responded: “Do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes…”
It’s a good point. What is the acceptable number of apartment complexes that can be taken over by violent gangs of illegal aliens?
For the record, it does not appear that Raddatz ever “heard” herself.
Loser: San Jose State Women’s Volleyball Team
It all began when Boise State Women’s Volleyball Team announced it would forfeit the game rather than play against San Jose State who has a man pretending to be a woman on their team. Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming in the Mountain West quickly followed suit. Players at the University of Nevada also wanted to forfeit, but that was before the DEI infused university bureaucrats got in the fight. The Nevada players said that administrators at their school did not consult them before they were informed they would not be allowed to forfeit. Players still insist they don’t want to play because they don’t feel safe. Hats off to the courageous athletes who are fighting this latest battle to save women’s sports.
Game Day!
No such worries tomorrow when both the No. 1 Texas Longhorns and the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs will take the field in Austin at 6:30 p.m. The No. 14 Aggies are playing Mississippi State at 3 p.m.
Have a great weekend.
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. Nationally, the presidential race is too close to call; in Texas, we could have called it a year ago. With 24 days to go until the election, some clarity seems to be emerging as voters shift their focus away from “vibes” and toward the kinds of policies the country needs to move forward. Here’s who made my list this week:
Winner: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis & Free State Hurricane Response
When Vice President Kamala Harris complained that Gov. DeSantis wouldn’t take her calls last week after Hurricane Helene, he waved her off like a fly, even when she stamped her foot and insisted that he was “selfish” and engaging in “political gamesmanship” for ignoring her. Harris must have forgotten that the Biden-Harris administration tried to attack Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in the same way during Hurricane Beryl. They also charged that Patrick was not taking their calls. The Lt. Gov. pushed back and exposed them as liars. The Houston Chronicle ultimately issued a complete retraction of their story about it, praising Patrick for his handling of hurricane recovery.
As DeSantis demonstrated this week, and Texas has shown time and time again, the competence of the free conservative states is especially evident during big challenges like weather disasters. Texas’ and Florida’s preparedness and recovery programs are cutting edge and have a much better track record than FEMA. Oddly enough, it was President Joe Biden who got it right this time, praising DeSantis for “doing a great job” right after Harris tried to call him out. Biden said he “literally gave him my personal phone number to call.”
Harris’ first instinct was to personally attack DeSantis on the hurricane response, just like the Biden administration went after Lt. Gov. Patrick. It didn’t end well for them. Perhaps they should make a note in their play book.
Loser: The “Media Tour”
There are many questions regarding Vice President Kamala Harris’ so-called “media tour” this week, which included appearances on a podcast called “Call Her Daddy,” Howard Stern’s Sirius Radio show and ABC’s “The View.” It is hard to know whether the vice president’s vacuous responses are because she is afraid to say what she really thinks, fearing the country won’t agree with her vision, or because there is simply no there there.
Serving with Joe Biden, who has posted the lowest approval ratings in the history of approval ratings, Harris’ statement that “nothing comes to mind” when asked what she would change about the last four years is mind-boggling. Even Biden told author Bob Woodward that he never should have appointed Merrick Garland as attorney general, mostly because Garland failed to protect Biden’s son Hunter from prosecution. But Harris has no regrets.
To top off her “nothing comes to mind” quote, Harris told Univision last night that she would put her immigration record “up against anyone.” Of course, her record is up against former President Donald Trump’s, and polls consistently show that Americans like his record better.
The only winner of the Harris “media tour” was CBS Reporter Bill Whitaker who interviewed Harris on 60 Minutes, where the vice president refused to directly respond to his questions about whether letting millions of illegals into the country was a good idea, or how she views Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 60 Minutes is now trying to explain why they doctored the interview to make Harris appear more focused, which makes CBS a loser, but that wasn’t Whitaker’s fault.
Speaking of media tours, some of us predicted that Republican Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance would not be asked to do many national media interviews after his slam dunk performance in the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate. With all the cameras running, he proved the caricature the media had painted of him was wrong. He’s actually a pretty smart and articulate guy.
A quick search shows that we were right. Vance is mostly doing local media interviews—no big Sunday shows for him. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see Vance appear in the same venues as Harris’ media tour—Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Howard Stern? I am betting he could even charm the ladies of The View.
Loser: Colin Allred’s Support for Drag Shows for Military
Anyone who thinks Sen. Ted Cruz’s attacks on Colin Allred for his support of the transgender agenda are over the top need only look at the letter signed by Allred and dozens of other Democrats demanding the House and Senate Armed Services Committee remove restrictions Republicans put in the National Defense Reauthorization Act that prohibit the military from performing sex change surgeries.
The Democrats also wanted to remove restrictions that would prohibit military bases from flying “Pride” flags and hosting “drag shows.” When asked why he signed the letter, Allred said he didn’t want to second guess military leaders or distract from their mission. Instead, the Dallas congressman said he wants to make sure the military has “the tools they need to protect our country.”
Who watches a “drag show” and thinks, “I am so glad we have this tool to protect our country.” And don’t get me started on how drag shows perpetuate hateful and belittling stereotypes about women. If you haven’t read my op-ed, “Drag Shows are Black Face,” it’s posted here.
Winner: That Colorado Cake Bakery
On Tuesday, Jack Phillips, owner of the Masterpiece Cake Shop in Lakewood, Colorado won again when the Colorado Supreme Court threw out a case from a transgender lawyer who wanted him to create a “gender transition” cake. If you think you’ve heard this bakery story before, it is because you have. Phillips has been dragged into court several times over the last decade because he doesn’t make cakes that are incompatible with his Christian beliefs. He stands on the principle of religious freedom. His refusal to bake a gay wedding cake was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2017. It’s time to let this guy go forth and create the cakes and wants to create. That’s what religious freedom means.
Winner: Freedom to Open a Bottle
I keep thinking we need to write new verses to Lee Greenwood’s wonderful song, “I’m Proud to be an American,” such as “I’m proud to be an American, because at least they pick up my trash.” We have family members in Australia who report that the left-leaning government there only allows trash pick-ups once a month as a way to encourage people to re-cycle more—only they don’t pick up the re-cycle bins either. Think of it—a month’s worth of garbage outside your house. When the Aussies come to visit us, they see our routine trash pick-up as quite a luxury. Another verse we could add is “I am proud to be an American, because at least I can take a lid off a plastic bottle.”
With the war in Ukraine and the Middle East geographically closer to them than it is to us, you’d think the people on the continent would have more on their mind, but the geniuses at the European Union have decided that the problem that must be addressed is recycling of bottle caps. Apparently, some people take the cap off a plastic bottle and they don’t recycle it with the rest of the bottle. To remedy this sin, the EU now requires that battle caps be attached to bottles, so you can’t take them off. This means, if you try to drink from the bottle, the cap hits you in the face. You have no choice. You can’t just buy another brand.
Everybody now: “I’m proud to be an American, because at least I know I’m free!”
Winner: University of Texas Players’ NIL Contracts
The latest report indicates that the No. 1 ranked Texas Longhorn players have earned over $6 million in Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) contracts so far this year, most of it going to quarterbacks Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning, but contracts flowing to other players and athletes in other sports at UT, are not too shabby either. Texas is also earning big bucks for each nationally televised game, with more to come. Of course, Texas does still have to play the latest giant killer, Vanderbilt.
I don’t know how much they were paid, but watch for Ewers and Oklahoma quarterback Michael Hawkins, Jr., tomorrow on a new Dr. Pepper “Fansville” commercial during the Red River Shootout.
With the expansion of NIL, the increased deployment of the transfer portal and the conference changes last season that ended many regional rivalries, some predicted that college football would never recover. But so far the games have been great, the fans have prevailed and many believe we are living in one of the best college football seasons ever. As a point of personal privilege, I will note that No. 2 Ohio State is playing No. 3 Oregon tomorrow. Go Ducks!
Looking forward to a really big Game Day tomorrow.
Have a great one!
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
The War and The Debate – 31 Days Until the Election
Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers.
A strong new job report came out this morning, just as the radio show was going on the air and I am sure President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will take the credit. However, it is often the case that a huge percentage of new jobs created nationwide are in Texas as a result of the state’s conservative low tax rates and reasonable regulation policies that let businesses grow. Once we get the Texas numbers, I will report back.
Winner: Israel & Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
We know now that while Netanyahu was making a monumental speech at the United Nations last week, the Israeli Defense Forces were taking out Hassan Nasrallah, a founder of Hezbollah (which means “party of God”), a murderous killer who is responsible for, among other things, the suicide bombing that killed over 200 Marines in Beirut in 1983. Netanyahu said Nasrallah wasn’t “a terrorist,” he was “the terrorist.” His primary mission was to kill Jews.
“War on the West” author Douglas Murray said this week that the Torah teaches not to feel joy over the death of your enemies. That said, Murray notes that he is not Jewish, and he is going to rejoice over the death of Nasrallah. I am not Jewish either and I am also happy that this force of evil has been taken out. It has been noted that Israel has eliminated more people on the U.S. terrorist watch list in six weeks than the U.S. has eliminated in 20 years.
Learning nothing from all this, the Biden-Harris administration continues to push back against Israel moving forward in the war even as they give lip service to supporting Israel’s right to defend itself. They refuse to understand that the only real way for Israel to defend itself and stop the escalating conflict in the Middle East is to go in and win the war. Netanyahu is rightfully ignoring Biden and Harris.
Winner: J.D. Vance’s Debate Performance
U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance’s smashing victory over Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in the Vice Presidential Debate on Tuesday was the biggest unmasking of a media lie since they tried to tell us that Biden was fit and ready for duty. The media’s incessant attacks on Vance had resulted in astronomical negative ratings for him. Before the debate, he was very unpopular. After the debate, his ratings went up 19 points. Vance busted out of his “cat lady” image immediately and introduced America to a smart young guy who knows about issues and is quick on his feet. It’s been a while since we’ve seen one of those, and it was beyond refreshing.
Vance called his opponent “Tim,” as if they were friends, acknowledged points of agreement and generally reminded people how to disagree respectfully. A “sub-loser” this week is Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who played Vance in Gov. Tim Walz’s debate prep. Whatever Buttigieg did, it was wrong. Walz wasn’t ready for Vance. He clearly didn’t know what hit him.
Losers: VP Debate Moderators Margaret Brennan & Nora O’Donnell
Of course, Walz didn’t need to do much to defend himself in the debate—the moderators were taking care of all that. Going into the debate, it was hard to imagine that the moderators could be any more biased than ABC’s David Muir and Lindsey Davis, but the two women from CBS News lowered the bar even farther, seemingly unaware that every question they asked was premised on the Democrat Party’s view of the world.
They did not ask questions about the war in Ukraine or the faltering economy. When they asked about immigration, they focused on the grave injustice against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio instead of the millions of Americans in border states and now U.S. cities that are crumbling under the weight of Biden-Harris’ open border policies. Instead of talking about the Biden-Harris sluggish response to Hurricane Helene (Biden didn’t come back from the beach to monitor the storm) the moderators asked an outraged question about “climate change denial,” which is not even a thing anymore.
Since the moderators knew they had an abortion question, why didn’t they bother to read the abortion legislation Walz signed which does not limit abortion at any stage of pregnancy—up to the nineth month. Walz denied that when Vance pointed it out, so perhaps the governor hasn’t read it either.
Democrats invariably blame former President Donald Trump for the hate and vitriol in our political discourse but if you want to see what real hate looks like up close, check out the contempt on Margaret Brennan’s face when she condescendingly “woman-splained” to Vance that the illegal immigrants in Ohio are actually legal. When Vance insisted on laying out the facts, Brennan simply seethed.
It was clear from the beginning that the debate was another “Three Against One” situation for Republicans but by the time it was over, it turned out to be “One Against Three.” The senator whipped them all.
Winner: Greg Abbott’s October 7th Proclamation and His Request to the Texas Media
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation this week directing that flags fly at half-staff on Monday, Oct. 7 and proclaiming a moment of silence for the victims of the terrorist massacre in Israel last year. He also asked the Texas media to read out the names of the seven American hostages who are still being held by the Hamas terrorists. They are:
Edan Alexander
Itay Chen
Sagui Dekel-Chen
Gadi Haggai
Judith Weinstein Haggai
Omer Neutra
Being forced to watch the Biden-Harris administration vacillate on its support for Israel daily, it is great to live in a state that unequivocally supports our strongest ally in the Middle East—Israel.
Winner: Tony Gonzales’ Release of ICE statistics
U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, drove the news cycle for several days this week when he released statistics from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the number of criminals who are in the country who entered illegally—including 13,000 who have been convicted of murder either in the U.S. or abroad. Gonzales went after the long-sought statistics from ICE and made them part of the immigration narrative—which is a tough thing to pull off. Gonzales, whose district includes a huge part of the Texas border, knows as much about the negative impact of the deluge of illegal immigration under the Biden-Harris administration as anyone. Democrats have quibbled with the ICE numbers, but they can’t make them go away.
Loser: State Sen. Molly Cook’s statement on Israel
State Sen. Molly Cook, D-Houston, was elected to replace former Sen. John Whitmire who was elected Mayor of Houston last year. Whitmire is a strong supporter of Israel, resisting pressure from left-wing progressives who pressured him to issue a proclamation in support of a ceasefire shortly after the Hamas attack. Whitmire told the Jewish community: “When some of your enemies asked me to issue a proclamation for a ceasefire, I did not respond.”
His replacement, Cook, who never condemned the Oct. 7 attack and declined to attend a film about it at the Holocaust Remembrance Museum in Houston, has a different view. Last week, she issued a statement saying: “I cannot stay silent while the United States facilitates the indiscriminate bombing and starving of an entire population.”
Jewish leaders in Houston called Cook’s comments extremely harmful. They worry that her comments could fuel anti-Jewish hatred and spur attacks on Jewish institutions. We should all worry. Hopefully, Houston Democrats will continue to look to Whitmire, not Cook, for leadership.
Winner: Caitlin Clark – WNBA Rookie of the Year
No. 2 ranked Texas doesn’t play this week, but there is a round ball story that makes the winner’s list. Caitlin Clark has transformed the WNBA, just as she transformed women’s basketball in the NCAA and she was just named “Rookie of the Year.” Clark averaged almost 20 points a game and set a league record for the number of assists—19 in one game—and for triple doubles. She hit 122 three-point shots this season. Clark’s team, the Indiana Fever, also led the league in attendance, even though they didn’t make the playoff finals—which says it all. Women’s basketball has arrived. Many women players, past and present, have played a role in that, but nothing outweighs Clark’s contribution this year.
Texas A&M kicks off against Mizzou tomorrow at 11 a.m., and Texas Tech takes on Arizona at 10 p.m., book-ending more than 12 hours of college football tomorrow.
Have a great weekend!
Listen to Winners & Losers on Talk 1370, the Cardle & Wooley show, every Friday morning at 8:30 AM. Here’s the listen live link.
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
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Sherry Sylvester sits down with Rabbi Dan Ain, the founder of Moontower Minyan in Austin to discuss what he sees happening in Texas, America and the world since our last discussion following the 2023 attack.
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