Month: October 2026

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.