Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. As we enter the month of August and finish up the second week of the first called legislative session in Texas, some things are turning out to be more special than others. Here’s who made the list:
WINNER: Texas Republicans Draw a New Congressional Map
Who knows where it will all end, but it was big news across the nation this week when State Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, released the first draft of the much-discussed Congressional redistricting map, which would give Texas five more congressional districts and would likely replace their current Democrat representatives with Republicans. There are currently 219 Republicans in the U.S. House and 212 Democrats, and President Donald Trump thinks policy negotiations would go more smoothly if there were more Republicans. Hunter’s map would increase the number of likely GOP congressional seats in Texas and help Trump reach that goal.
U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was in Austin this week to talk to Texas Democrat lawmakers who must vote on the redistricting plan. He accused Texas Republicans of trying to steal the next election. His exact words were, “These corrupt sycophants cannot win a free and fair election, so they are trying to steal it.”
Last year, President Trump won 56.2% of the vote in Texas. He beat Kamala Harris by more than a million and a half votes. What election does Jeffries think Texas Republicans can’t win?
One of the map’s targets, U.S. Rep. Vincente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, is screaming that the Texas redistricting plan is “cheating.” U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, has called the new map “voter suppression,” and, of course, U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, says the redistricting move is “racist.” Green’s is also one of the target districts on Hunter’s map. Getting rid of Green, who had to be bounced out of Trump’s first speech to a joint session of Congress in March, might be reason enough for the Republicans to push forward with Hunter’s map.
There is undoubtedly more outrage to come from Democrats, so here’s a little historical perspective. In 2002, Texas Republicans garnered 53.3% of the statewide vote while 43% of Texans voted for the Democrats. Still, Democrats controlled the Texas congressional delegation with 17 seats drawn in their favor. Republicans had 13 and went to court to get two more. In 2003, when Texas Republicans finally gained control of all three branches of state government, they went back to court to demand a new map. I’m skipping lots of juicy details, but the key point that needs to be made is that back then, the Democrats told the judge that the GOP redistricting plan wasn’t fair.
Reportedly, the judge laughed out loud at the notion that Texas Democrats, who were notorious for outrageous gerrymandering, would charge Republicans with being unfair.
WINNER: Trump in the Scotland Press Conference
It has seemed for a while now that Trump is a winner every week, but what can we do? His joint press conference in Scotland with British Prime Minister Keirs Starmer clearly earned the president a place on the winner’s list as he took questions from the international media for over an hour. He talked about the big trade deal with the European Union, his exasperation with Putin and his commitment to provide food to Gaza, all of which was likely big news to the hostile Europeans who hate him. Before he arrived in Scotland, the National, a newspaper, ran a front page story with the blaring headline CONVICTED U.S. FELON TO ARRIVE IN SCOTLAND.
But his detractors just ended up looking stupid, while Trump demonstrated what a world leader looks like. Whether he was talking about the wars, trade deals or economic policy, his command of the issues, including the details and the numbers, is undeniably impressive, not only for those of us who put up with a frequently incoherent president for the last four years, but also for Europeans who only hear about Trump from antagonistic news sources. Even for those who disagree with him or think he’s lying, these extensive interviews allow viewers to see how he approaches issues.
Trump seems truly puzzled as to why Russia doesn’t use all its resources to make its people rich instead of spending it on war—the same sentiment that caused him to propose leveling the Gaza strip and turning it into resorts. He’s kind of a “make money, not war” guy. You can listen to the entire press conference here.
WINNER: Senate Passes Taxpayer Funded Lobbying Ban in the Special
Gov. Greg Abbott is a winner for adding a ban on taxpayer funded lobbying to the special session agenda. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is a winner for already passing Senate Bill 12 in the Special Session (the Texas Senate has passed a ban on taxpayer funded lobbying at least four times) and Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, is a winner for carrying the bill that will finally stop cities, counties, school districts and special districts, from using taxpayer dollars—which they get through property taxes—to pay hired-guns to lobby the members of the state Legislature.
My colleague, anti-taxpayer funded lobbying warrior James Quintero, found that that local jurisdictions spent almost $100 million last year paying contract lobbyists to push for programs that serve the interests of local governments, not taxpayers. Efforts to end taxpayer funded lobbying over the last decade have been futile, mostly because the army of lobbyists who descend on the Texas Capitol every day are a powerful force whose connections to lawmakers are extensive and deep. In 2019, after a bill to ban taxpayer funded lobbying was ultimately defeated on the House floor, contract lobbyists who had congregated in the House Gallery burst into applause. This was a rare demonstration of self-interest. The hired guns usually play it pretty cool in public.
The City Council ended the lobbying contract, but not before noting that it was especially ironic in Midland, since the city is represented in the State Legislature by former Speaker Tom Craddick, the longest serving and one of the most influential lawmakers in Texas history. The news reported that one councilman said, “We have the best lobbyist in Austin already. We have Tom Craddick. You can’t do better than that.”
WINNER: American Eagle Has Good Genes
One of the oddest news reports this week just wouldn’t die. It was the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle jeans ad. Sweeney is a gorgeous blonde, blue-eyed young woman who made a denim ad saying, “I have great jeans.” Ohmigosh! Wokies came out of the woodwork to attack her. How dare she be blonde and happy about it? Plus, they insisted that what she clearly meant was “I have good genes,” celebrating her whiteness, which, as we know, cannot be celebrated, only denigrated. The fact that Sweeney did not slink away in shame is a good sign—maybe this kind of nutty wokeness is coming to an end.
Sen. Ted Cruz had a good political observation about Sweeney’s blue jeans, pointing out that progressives coming out against beautiful women is unlikely to poll well for them.
I am hoping the Sweeney ad signals a new trend with commercials that feature a wider variety of people. Wouldn’t it be great to see a few ads where every family isn’t bi-racial? Bi-racial families are great, but in every commercial? What about a black family, an Asian family, or perhaps even a white family? In the world of ads, it seems like people of the same race aren’t getting married anymore.
LOSER: The Democrats Again
There’s an old joke about a guy who calls his lawyer’s office and is told by the receptionist that his attorney had recently died. Several minutes later, the guy calls back and the receptionist again tells him of his lawyer’s passing. On the third call, the frustrated receptionist says bluntly, I’ve already told you, your lawyer is dead. The guy replies, “I know. I just like to hear it.”
That is the same reason I keep listing these polls which seem to come out every week now, showing Democrats are re-defining rock bottom. I just like to hear it. This week, the Wall Street Journal found that 63% of voters have a negative view of the Democratic Party—the lowest rating since 1990—and only 33% view Democrats favorably.
There’s so many reasons for this—covering up Joe Biden’s cognitive failures, shutting down schools during COVID-19, Zohran Mamdani, California, attacks on ICE agents. This week we got another one. Nineteen Democratic attorneys general moved together to try to stop the Trump administration from investigating food stamp fraud. Don’t expect the Democrat poll numbers to go up soon.
That said, conservatives must remain vigilant. The latest analysis of generic ballot polls, which are critical when looking at the mid-term elections, show that Democrats are leading Republicans 45.3% to 43%, reminding us again that the only relevant question in politics is “compared to what.”
WINNER: EPA Gets Rid of Useless Climate Regulations
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin took steps this week to “drive a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion,” when he rolled back the Obama era rules that declared war on the oil and gas industry—not to mention American cars—with draconian regulations against fossil fuel emissions. Everybody supports action to maintain a clean environment, but people have had it with what Zeldin rightly calls the “climate change religion” which proscribes a series of virtue signals that have no impact at all, like these fossil fuel rules, plastic straws and bags that say “my reusable bag makes me better than you.“
But Trump is not just going after useless climate regulations. This week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute reported that the president has created something they call the “unrule,” eliminating 10 regulations for every new regulation they establish. Ten to one sounds good.
LOSER: Seattle Climate Activists Go After Blue Angels
They are even sick of climate change virtue signaling in Seattle. The Seattle Air Show Climate Action Coalition was unsuccessful in stopping the participation of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels in the Seafair Air Show this weekend. The climate activists insisted that the jets were polluting the skies of Seattle, but nobody bought it. They also didn’t buy the argument that the jets triggered some veterans who wanted the show stopped.
There are few things as exhilarating on earth as watching the precision Blue Angels—or their Air Force counterparts, the Thunderbirds. Here’s a preview for the show in Seattle.
LOSERS: It’s not just California—the Northeast Exodus
New York and New Jersey lost $140 billion in income over the last decade because nobody wants to live there anymore. Over 2 million people have taken their money and moved to other states—mostly Texas and Florida. We’ve heard all the reasons before—property and income taxes are off the charts, housing prices are astronomical and then there’s crime. Those old blue states are no fun anymore. I was just in New York last week, and everybody is depressed.
In terms of new arrivals, we got some data from U-Haul this week about where refugees from California are landing in Texas—Austin and San Antonio are the top choices. So if you see somebody in your neighborhood walking around with a sack that reads “my reusable bag makes me better than you,” grab it out of their hands and give them one that says, “Come and Take It,” instead.
LOSER: Does Kamala Finally Get It?
The people “just aren’t that into her.” This week Kamala Harris announced that she will not run for governor of California. There were some reports that she didn’t want the job, but nobody believed that. If she got elected, she could just pretend being governor wasn’t her job, like she pretended she wasn’t really the Border Czar. What is more likely is that the polling looked awful and the people who fund the kind of campaigns that are required in a big state like California wouldn’t give her any more money after she forked over more than a billion dollars for her presidential run that went nowhere.
It is so hard to figure out how Harris, the first woman to serve as vice president, will show up in our nation’s history. Will she just be a trivia question, like Jeanette Rankin, the first woman to serve in Congress and the only person to vote against declaring war on Japan after Pearl Harbor? Perhaps Harris is thinking about her legacy. She also announced this week that she is writing a book, entitled, “107 Days,” about her presidential campaign.
WINNER: Trump is Saving College Sports
College football season starts at the end of the month and after the antics of last season—with players scrambling around for the biggest NIL deal and the transfer portal allowing weekly roster shuffles—we all hope we are not watching the beginning of the end.
This week, President Trump stepped up to say that in addition to trying to end wars and the correct the trade imbalance, he’s also going to save college sports. Trump re-established the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, which former President Barack Obama shut down because he thought it was too embarrassing for kids to fail the fitness tests.
Trump also re-iterated his commitment to college sports, pledging to end college football players being “traded around like playing cards,” and preserving the U.S. Olympic athlete pipeline and Title IX sports for women. USA! USA!
LOSER: The Media Conspiracy Continues to Unravel
All First Lady Melania Trump had to do was send her lawyers over to the Daily Beast office and they immediately deleted an article that appeared to link her with the Jeffrey Epstein mess. Hopefully, this means those stories that are “too good to check” will now be checked, or at least reined in. Meanwhile ABC News anchor Terry Moran, who was fired in June after calling President Trump “a world class hater,” admitted this week that there was no “diversity of thought” at the network, which he said resulted in “inadvertent bias.” The problem, according to Moran, is that no one at ABC supported Trump so there was no way to know what the other side might be thinking. Aren’t journalists supposed to go ask people what they are thinking, whether they agree with them or not?
Finally, New York Times columnist Bret Stephen, who describes himself as a “foam at the mouth critic” of Trump admitted this week that “not everything Trump does is bad” and he put out a long list of examples. If you care what the New York Times said (and I totally get that you may not) you can read it here.
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.
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