Month: October 2026

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Today is the last day of Early Voting, so we are now beginning the endgame. So far, 6.2 million Texans had cast their ballots as of Wednesday and the GOP deficit has dwindled to 56,000—half of what it was last week. Those numbers don’t show winners and losers, of course, so here’s who made the list:

WINNER: USA Swamping World in AI Computing

The U.S. is locked into an ongoing battle with China over artificial intelligence (AI), but a new report released this week shows that the U.S. is currently in the lead. America currently has over 70% of the world’s AI computing — the processing power that makes AI work. That means we’ve got the chips, the means of producing more chips and the capital investment to make that happen. China, at a little over 10%, is not even close — and Europe isn’t really in the game.

Texas Tech recently announced a partnership with NVIDIA, the largest chip maker in the world, to “deploy next-generation accelerated computing infrastructure” on the Red Raider campus in Lubbock. Meanwhile, using their usual “head in the sand” strategy, Canada invited the European Union over to Montreal yesterday to try to talk them into letting the Canadians join — so Canada will retain its spot on the losers list.

WINNER: Nancy Pelosi — Mamdani and El Sayed are “just wrong.”

I am not sure if former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a first time winner in this space, but she made the list this week for clearly condemning the frequent anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments of Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Pelosi was on a podcast called “On Brand,” where the host provided quotes of both the Democratic Socialists refusing to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Pelosi called that “wrong,” and said it did not reflect the position of the Democrats in Congress. Pelosi distanced herself from El-Sayed, noting he hasn’t actually been elected, and said bluntly that she did not agree with Mayor Mamdani. She also said other House members should not tolerate anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views from their colleagues in Congress (which would be a big change). It is not often we hear much sanity coming from Democrats in general, and Pelosi in particular, but it is worth noting that she took a stand.

LOSER: Talarico and the Classrooms Lie

Going down to the wire, candidates are throwing everything they’ve got into whatever race they are running, so it was great to see that the New York Times (really) called out Texas Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico this week for a whopper. While on the campaign trail, Talarico whined that when he taught in public school in Texas, his classroom had over 45 students, several of whom didn’t have desks and had to sit on radiators. He even claimed the experience was so awful that it moved him to run for office. The Times checked with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and learned that it wasn’t true — Talarico never taught a class with more than 30 students.

Texas Democrats frequently make up stories about the dire straits of Texas public schools, always ignoring the billions of dollars spent on administrative bloat and astronomical superintendents salaries. If you are in the mood for some facts about our public schools, my TPPF colleagues, Mandy Drogin and James Quintero lay out some of the most outrageous truths HERE.

LOSER: Blue City Rain Forecasts

It goes without saying that conservatives win elections on merit — more people agree with principled, common-sense policies than don’t. However, in the fog of the war that is the current mid-term election, the forces of darkness are strong and confusion can sometimes obscure the light. It is critical to use every tool you have.

That’s why many conservatives are praying for rain on Election Day. Traditionally, Democrat voters have proven more likely to be deterred by bad weather. The fact that three of the Lone Star State’s big blue cities—Dallas, Austin and San Antonio—are bracing for “severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall” next Tuesday is good news.

While Democrat turnout far exceeded the GOP in the first week of early voting, Republicans are closing the gap in the second week, so the Election Day turnout could be decisive.

WINNER: Two States Put Saving Girls Sports on the Ballot

Texas has rightfully outlawed boys playing in girls sports and gender mutilating surgeries for children, both of which are allowed in most Democrat-controlled states. But Washington state and Colorado have put boys playing in girls sports on the ballot for next Tuesday, and Washington Democrats are panicked. Using big scare tactics, they are telling voters that every girl will have to be examined before every game — something that doesn’t happen in Texas and other states where boys are already prohibited from playing in girls sports. Colorado is also voting on whether to ban gender mutilating sex change surgeries. Polling shows that virtually nobody in either party supports either one of these things, but we’ll see how the voting turns out.

Loser: Dirty Tricks in Alaska

The story of how the Alaska Democrats found a guy with the same name as the Republican U.S. senator in Alaska, Dan Sullivan, to run against him would make a great movie. Apparently, former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, the Democrat who is challenging Sullivan, wanted to increase her odds — or at least her team wanted to increase her odds — so they recruited another man with the same name as her opponent and got him to file for the election. Predictably, voters are confused.

The U.S. Dept. of Justice is investigating and President Donald Trump is threatening to get the race thrown out if Peltola wins. Yesterday, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is also a Republican, also announced an investigation, which means Alaska will be on everybody’s watch list on Election Night. You can’t blame Alaska’s awful “jungle primary” system for making this possible, but it didn’t help.

WINNER: Halloween Shout Out to America

Halloween is tomorrow, so I want to do my annual shout-out regarding the Salem Witch Trials, which occurred in the summer of 1694.

Every year at Halloween, some lefty trots out the Salem Witch Trials as proof that America was rotten from the beginning, but just the opposite is true. When you look at what happened in Salem and compare it to the rest of the world, it was already clear that America was an exceptional place.

The numbers tell the story: In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, at least 12,000 women were executed for witchcraft in Europe and some estimates are much higher. During that same time period, the body count in America was 35, including the 19 women who were executed at Salem. That doesn’t make any of it right, of course, but it does provide perspective. If you were a woman, or even a witch, during that time, the safest place in the world to be was America. To read my entire article on the Salem witch trials, click here.

WINNER: Pope Votes by Mail

Pope Leo XIV made history this week when he became the first Pope to vote in an American election. He cast his ballot by mail in Illinois, where he is registered. In fact, Robert Francis Prevost, his name before he became Pope Leo, has been voting by mail since 2012.

We are all proud that the pope, who was born on the South Side of Chicago, is an American and now we know he takes every aspect of his citizenship seriously. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Illinois doesn’t have “absentee ballots,” and any registered voter can vote by mail if they want to. There’s a federal law governing military personnel who are serving overseas, so they don’t lose their voting rights, but this is a call by the state of Illinois, which is not challenging the Holy Father.

WINNERS: Brewers, Longhorns and Cougars

Unless you were watching closely, it was easy to miss Milwaukee winning the World Series in the middle of the week. They defeated Tampa Bay in five games to take home the first championship in their history.

Meanwhile, after Week 8 of college football, the No. 11 ranked Texas Longhorns had sort of a comeback after a solid defeat over Ole Miss. Unfortunately, Texas Tech is no longer undefeated after their tragic loss to Cincinnati. The Red Raiders are now ranked No. 13.The other Texas team in the top 25, the University of Houston, plays Cincinnati on Saturday. The Longhorns face Mississippi State and Tech will play Arizona tomorrow. Texas A&M is off this week. I believe the college football reformers should also consider outlawing bye weeks—nothing good ever comes from them.

Have a great weekend!

Listen to Winners & Losers on Talk 1370, the Cardle & Woolley show, every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. Here’s the listen live link.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Texas is wrapping up the first week of early voting with massive lines all over the state. According to Longhorn Derek, the only person who knows anything real about what is going on in the midterms — 2.3 million Texans have voted — more Democrats than Republicans at the beginning of the week, but GOPers are beginning to close the gap. There’ll be more numbers later today. Meanwhile, here’s who made list:

LOSER: University of Texas Faculty Dressed in Black

According to a story in the Houston Chronicle this past week, about 20 faculty members at the University of Texas at Austin, all members of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), dress up in black and walk across campus every day at lunch time to protest what they call the “death of academic freedom” on the 40 Acres. Their entire list of complaints is enumerated in a new million-word article in Texas Monthly lamenting what they call the “conservative takeover” of the University. These “demonstrations” have been going on for a while, but one AAUP member whined that University officials have not reached out to the AAUP protestors to ask about their “grievances.”

The AAUP has been wailing and gnashing their teeth since 2023 when Texas closed down DEI offices at UT and other public universities in Texas. After the university governance reforms passed last session, via Senate Bill 37, the AAUP entered a permanent state of hysteria, but nobody was listening to them, so they came up with this dressing in black stunt. Setting their hair on fire is undoubtedly next.

The Texas AAUP doesn’t really represent anyone. Their website says they have 2,700 members statewide on 100 campuses, public and private. That number isn’t even a blip of a percentage of the almost 102,000 people who teach, just at Texas public universities. The 20 or so AAUP members who are demonstrating on the UT campus also are barely a statistical trace of the 2,900 professors who teach full-time at UT and another 500 or so who teach part time.

The Texas AAUP continues to insist that ending DEI and removing requirements for “grievance studies” classes like gender studies and lesbian migration patterns are scaring good faculty away from UT, but that claim was also debunked this week by UT administration, which revealed that they received over 12,000 applications for just 94 job openings.

Still, anytime any professor decides to leave Texas for any reason, the Texas AAUP will call a reporter and, like the Houston Chronicle or Texas Monthly, they’ll usually write a story about the “brain drain” or “exodus” of Texas faculty. This simply is not happening at UT or any of the Texas flagships as Texas higher education reforms are recognized as the national model for returning rigor and trust to our universities. No clue how long before the Texas media figures that out.

WINNER: Texas Crime Fighters

Aaron Reitz, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, announced an indictment this week of the Fort Bend County Tax Accessor Collector, Carmen Patrice Turner, who is charged with theft of federal funds and wire fraud. Texas Bullpen has the most colorful write-up, noting that the Tax Accessor-Collector was charged with paying county employees to do personal work for her, including taking care of her mother. She was also funneling money to one of her “baby daddies,” who was sending her kickbacks from Chicago. The investigation was a joint operation with the Houston FBI, the Texas Rangers and the Harris County DA. There will be trials, of course, but we’d also like to know who is optioning the movie rights.

LOSER: AOC redefines “Girls’ Girl”

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, apologized to a self-identified transgender person on the campaign trail this week for Democrats who have come out in opposition to boys playing in girls sports and other policies that support men who say they are women. Although almost 80% of Americans oppose men in women’s sports, AOC says that’s wrong. She says, “the right to choose over our bodies is the right to choose over our bodies.” Huh?

WINNER: A Good Economic Story Ignored in Texas?

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that unemployment claims dropped to an almost 60-year low in mid-October, suggesting that the low job growth rate reported in September was a blip. The WSJ report said that the data indicates that oil prices and the war in Iran has caused “no material stress to the labor market.”

At the same time I got that email alert with the unemployment claims story, I received this headline from the Dallas Morning News: Texas shed thousands of jobs in September, lowering 2026 growth forecast. The “news report” is basically a rehash of the September jobs report, which came out three weeks ago. No clue why the folks at the Dallas Morning News thought they should re-write it and run it on the first week of early voting.

Almost makes you think those folks who believe Democrats are collaborating with the media to depress GOP enthusiasm and turnout are right. Why else would the media fail to report good economic news in the days before an election?

WINNER: Florida issues an arrest warrant for Raul Castro

It seems like every week we see more data showing that young Americans are increasingly enthused, not just about socialism, but also communism. That is why it is important that the state of Florida issued an arrest warrant last week for Raul Castro, brother of Fidel, who ordered an air-to-air missile to strike down two civilian planes in 1996, killing four people. Reportedly, Castro believed they were carrying out a humanitarian mission, even though the aircraft were traveling away from Cuba and received no warning despite contact with Havana air traffic control. Castro, who is 93, is no longer head of the Cuban Communist Party, but it is important for the young admirers of communism to learn how these ruthless regimes actually operate.

WINNER: Long Shot Baseball Fans

The World Series starts today so if there are any fans of Tampa Bay or the Milwaukie Brewers out there, the long wait is over. Neither team has ever won the World Series before, so we know we’ll get a first-time champion when it’s all over.

WINNER: The Red Raiders of Texas Tech

While the dreams of Longhorns and Aggie fans seem to be crumbling, the undefeated Red Raiders of Texas Tech face off against Cincinnati tomorrow at 11 a.m. The Red Raiders are ranked No. 8 nationally. The No. 19 ranked Texas Longhorns are playing Ole Miss tomorrow in Austin, and Texas A&M, which fell off the ranking charts a while ago, is traveling to Alabama to play No. 13 Crimson Tide. We should note that another Texas public university, the University of Houston, is ranked No. 14 and will play No. 10 ranked Utah. After what happened last week, there is absolutely no way to know what to expect anywhere, but it should be a good Saturday.

Have a great weekend!

Listen to Winners & Losers on Talk 1370, the Cardle & Woolley show, every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. Here’s the listen live link.

Every Friday morning I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. With early voting in the mid-terms starting on Monday, and almost half a billion dollars dropping in advertising spending in Texas, the only clear winners at this point are television and live streaming companies. But there are others who have distinguished themselves, in one way or another, in the past week. Here’s who made list:

WINNER: HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Demands AMA Put Up or Shut Up

Over the last several legislative sessions, TPPF and other advocates for Texas children have sat in countless legislative hearings and heard testimony from those pushing so-called “gender affirming care,” including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and even mutilating sex-change surgeries, point out that those practices are approved by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics. In February, the AMA backed off recommending unnecessary mastectomies and castrations for children, conceding that those surgeries should only be performed on adults, but they are still on board for the powerful and dangerous hormone treatments.

This week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sent a letter to the AMA, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, demanding they prove their contention that drug, hormone and surgical based “gender affirming care” treatments for children who are gender confused actually work.

The British National Health Service, which started these awful programs decades ago, determined almost five years ago that the evidence for the effectiveness of gender affirming care treatment is “remarkably weak” and several European countries have followed their lead with their own research, ultimately reversing their medical protocols for dealing with children who are gender confused. Hospitals that were performing sex change operation have closed down all over Europe as countries have pivoted to recommending counseling for kids who are gender confused.

Although 19 Democrat states are suing HHS over their attempts to stop Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals that perform sex change surgeries on children, a half dozen hospitals have already closed down those programs in response. Can’t wait to see what they say to Secretary Kennedy.

In somewhat related news, new data from the Center for Disease Control found that the number of high schoolers who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual has dropped substantially in since 2023—most dramatically among ninth grade girls, where the percentage who say they are lesbian, gay or bisexual has decreased from 30 percent in 2021 to 17 percent in 2025.

WINNER: Marco Rubio Says ‘No’ to Fake International Criminal Court

President Donald Trump should stop yearning for a Nobel Peace Prize, because, of course, those prizes have nothing to do with peace.

Last week, when Navi Pillay won, the Peace Prize Committee listed one of her “accomplishments” as getting the International Criminal Court (ICC) to pronounce that Israel is guilty of genocide. Pillay served as a judge on that court.

The ICC has been anti-American and anti-West from the beginning. It was established in 2002 to provide a mechanism to prosecute the U.S. for war crimes. Then-President George W. Bush didn’t join at the time, saying no American statesman or soldier should ever be placed under the jurisdiction of a foreign court. Every president since—Democrat and Republican—has agreed.

Recently, the ICC has been escalating its left-wing attacks on Israel and America, and this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had finally had enough. After calling the ICC a threat to U.S. sovereignty, he cut off any U.S. resources it might be receiving and banned all transactions between the ICC and any American company. To make his point crystal clear, Rubio said, “the United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC.”

LOSERS: Gen Z Data Continues to Alarm

Anyone who believes higher education reform in Texas isn’t urgent should look at a new Rasmussen Poll released this week that found that 43% of likely voters between the ages of 18 and 24 have a positive view of Sharia law. This is particularly frightening when you consider those surveyed were likely voters, not simply registered voters. Likely voters actually vote.

A Texas Scorecard story lays out the details, adding that about 25% of those in the same age group would allow a city to impose Sharia law if a majority of the people voted for it.

Meanwhile, a new survey by the Buckley Foundation found that 22% of college students believe, like Democratic Socialist Hasan Piker, that America deserved the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

Additional data points in the Buckley Poll reveal why college students have such wacky beliefs—they don’t talk to anyone who disagrees with them. More than half said they could not be close friends with someone in a different political party and, among liberal students, 55% said they wouldn’t take a class from a professor who had political opinions contrary to theirs. In fact, some believe opinions that differ from theirs could cause mental illness.

Add that to the data from the Cato Institute that 53% of Gen Z voters have a favorable view of socialism and 38% view communism favorably, and you can see the Red Alert.

LOSER: Gavin Newsom Signs California Reparations Bill

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the first-in-the-nation slavery reparations bill that will require California companies to investigate and disclose their historic ties to slavery.

Kristin Nimmers, a spokesperson for both the California Black Power Network and the Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation, and Truth, told Fox News Digital that Newsom’s so-called Truth in Disclosure Act is critical for corporate accountability.

But truth is not always simple or easy. Another reparations group in Illinois called the U.S. Freedman Project told Fox News Digital that any funds for reparations should only go to so-called “foundational” black Americans and not to any person of color, underserved communities, immigrants and marginalized groups. They were protesting some reparation programs that have been established by a few blue cities.

California’s Commission on Reparations, which recommended Newsom’s new law, limited eligibility to those who are directly descended from slaves, but the vote was five to four, as some reparation advocates believe every black person should be eligible, regardless of how and when they arrived in America.

If governments begin actually appropriating reparation funds, this debate is only going to get more heated. A new book released last month called History by a Hair: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings and Solving a 200 Year Old Mystery, raises some additional questions. The book documents recent research into the DNA in a lock of Thomas Jefferson’s hair, establishing beyond doubt that the former president fathered the children of Sally Hemmings, a slave who lived at Monticello. In the six or seven generations since they passed, Jefferson and Hemings have at least 3,000 descendants and maybe as many as 8,000, some of whom identify as white and some as black. Their story is not unique, and it is just one American family. If any one of them applied for reparations, how would their application be judged?

WINNER: Texas Football — ‘We’re not dead, we’re okay.’

Yes, the University of Texas Longhorns lost the Red River Rivalry against Oklahoma last week, but I suspect that Coach Steve Sarkisian is right when he says they are “okay and not dead.” We all know that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and Texas could actually thrive without having to carry the weight of No. 1 ranking onto the field for a while. Their ranking toppled to No. 7 nationally this week as a result of their defeat by an unranked team.

The Longhorns play Florida tomorrow in Austin. Kickoff is at 11 a.m. The No. 10 ranked Red Raiders of Texas Tech are now the only undefeated Texas team in the Top 25. They play Arizona State tomorrow. Texas A&M fell out of the Top 25 three weeks ago, but the Aggies are still fighting. They go up against the Citadel tomorrow and we’ve finally got some football worthy weather!

Have a great weekend!

Listen to Winners & Losers on Talk 1370, the Cardle & Woolley show, every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. Here’s the listen live link.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle and Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to discuss the week’s Winners and Losers. As we put up our decorations to celebrate Columbus Day, on Monday, we can remember that President Trump officially declared last year that on October 12 we celebration the Spanish explorer. For those who celebrate, Indigenous People’s Day is some other time. Here’s who made the list:

WINNER: Showing Up

We all know that half the battle in life is simply to show up, which makes Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton a winner this week in his effort to be elected to the U.S. Senate. General Paxton was on stage with President Trump in San Antonio and traversed the state making dozens of campaign stops. Meanwhile, his opponent, State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, has gone missing. No one has seen him for 13 days. The last time anyone saw Talarico in the flesh was on September 25 at a fundraising event in New York City, hosted by actor Robert DeNiro and attended by all the folks who raised money for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Talarico’s campaign says he has a flu — which as we all know can be awful — but, reportedly, even his supporters are worried. It is not clear where we should send “Get Well” cards.

LOSERS; Anti-Israel Protesters at Too Many American Universities

This week marked the third-year anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel that resulted in the killing of over 1,200 people and the abduction of 251 hostages. Students at Columbia, UCLA and other universities around the country, as well as in the City of New York, launched commemorative protests to affirm their support for Hamas, chanting, “there is only one solution, intifada revolution,” which provides some insight into the worldview of these American students. Even more difficult to understand is another popular chant uttered throughout the protest, “NYPD, KKK, IOF [Israeli Defense Force} they’re all the same.” Think about that.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made an October 7 statement that seemed to acknowledge the terrorist murdering spree that took place in Israel, but as Politico reported, all but one sentence of his message went on to condemn Israel for what he insists on calling “genocide.” As outrageous and absurd as that statement is, it is important to remember that there are more Jewish people living in New York City than in any other place in the world outside of Israel — and they are outraged.

WINNER: Huffines Launches ISD Audits

Texas Comptroller Don Huffines announced this week that he will be auditing four independent school districts to take a closer look at how their state funds are being spent. The schools are Austin ISD, Barbers Hill ISD, El Paso ISD and Prosper ISD. Austin ISD, with almost 70,000 students, is the largest district being reviewed, reporting a huge budget deficit and a loss of almost 6,500 students in the last year alone. I spoke with Comptroller Huffines about the audits last summer. In came you missed it, you can listen here.

Huffines did not say why he picked those four school districts, although there have been questions raised about their financial operations and transparency over the past year. The State of Texas added an additional $8 billion to public education in the last legislative session and Huffines says his goal is to make sure that state funds are directly applied to classrooms and educating students rather than increasing administrative bureaucracy.

WINNER: Trump in San Antonio Takes on Loser Media

President Trump was in my hometown, San Antonio, this week, where he actually had to make it clear to the media that when he said Iran had the power to hit Los Angeles or San Diego with missiles, he wasn’t suggesting they do it. As hard as it is to believe, the media has never really believed that Iran was an actual threat to America’s security — or even the security of the rest of world.

While in the Alamo City, the President patiently explained that an attack on Los Angeles or San Diego — which is in the realm of possibility with a well-armed Iran, could set the United States into a free fall. He pledged that he would not let that happen. Instead of reporting that, the media pretended that Trump had called for an attack on California.

It gets tiresome to continue to report how biased the media is, but Newsweek reported this week that several American news outlets were very slow to call the FlyDubai terrorist attack what it was despite information surfacing almost immediately of the attacker’s Islamist radicalization. The New York Times described the harrowing fight in the cockpit of the plane as an “altercation between a pilot and co-pilot,” while ABC News noted that the “suspect in the incident had been previously described as a security risk.” The Los Angeles Times got it right the first time — calling the incident a “terrorist attack.”

WINNER: Red River Shoot Out

With 24 days to go until the mid-term election, many of the daily polls are tight, but anyone looking for a sure thing might think they have it in tomorrow’s game between the No. 1 ranked University of Texas Longhorns and the unranked Oklahoma Sooners. Still, everyone knows that anything can happen in a rivalry game, and Texas – Oklahoma is one of the best rivalries in the country, so it should be fun to watch. Kick-off is at 2:30. Texas A&M is playing Missouri and Texas Tech is off this week.

Have a great weekend!

Listen to Winners & Losers on Talk 1370, the Cardle & Woolley show, every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. Here’s the listen live link.

Follow Sherry on X @sylvester1630 and find her on Substack at sherrysylvester.substack.com 

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.