TPPF Distinguished Senior Fellow Sherry Sylvester testifies on the role of faculty senates before the Texas Senate Higher Education Subcommittee on November 11, 2024.
Author: Sherry Sylvester
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. This is the last list before Election Day and the only thing we know for sure is not to believe anyone who says they are confident about the outcome on Tuesday night.
What we do know is that data guru Derek Ryan reports that 7.5 million people had voted in Texas as of Wednesday. Almost 2.5 million of those voters have a Republican history while 1.6 have a Democrat voting history.
Here’s who made the list this week:
Winner: Texas Women Voters
Of those 7.5 million Texas early voters, 52% are women, while 44% are men, indicating an eight point gender gap. Democrats view this as a positive sign for them because they believe women who vote are protesting the Republican position on abortion, but Republicans see these women voters as a good sign, noting that polls show the economy, border security and crime issues are their priorities. The GOP also believes that their closing attack ads that highlight Vice President Kamala Harris’ support for the transgender agenda—attacks Harris has not responded to—will persuade women voters to vote for Trump. Polls make it clear that the transgender agenda is a losing issue.
Winner: The White House Office of Stenography
Ann Sands, Director of the White House Office of Stenography, chided the White House Press Office this week for doctoring the official transcript of President Joe Biden’s recent remarks to make it appear he did not call supporters of former President Donald Trump “garbage.” According to Sands, the move by the Press Office to release a doctored transcript was a “breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity between Stenography and the Press office.” Sands noted that the Press Office can withhold official transcripts, but they cannot change them.
Not only did I not know that “spoliation” was a word, I had lost hope that there were any bureaucrats left in Washington who possessed the kind of ethics and vigilance that Sands exhibited this week. Her final plea to the White House Press Office was an admonition that they have given an official transcript to the American public that is different from what will be placed in the National Archives. The country is lucky to have someone with a work ethic like this who is, literally, taking notes and has a larger perspective than next week’s election.
Loser: Insulting Voters, Part 1
Former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle spent the last week attacking Black men for supporting former President Trump. The former president has repeatedly noted that a decline in African-American support for Harris “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.” To win them over, Obama told black men they were probably sexist and not comfortable with a woman president.
Insulting people to get them to vote for you hasn’t worked for Democrats in the past. After Hillary Clinton was defeated in 2016, Michelle Obama accused women who voted against Clinton—and millions did—of self-hatred. “You don’t like your voice, you like the thing you are told to like.” Insults usually don’t work if you are trying to get someone to like you.
Loser: Insulting Voters, Part 2
Almost as big as Biden’s “garbage” insult was Texan Mark Cuban’s slam against Trump this week saying “you never see him around strong, intelligent women” — denigrating not only Trump’s wife Melania, but dozens of women who have worked and continue to work with the former president. The backlash has been massive.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and former Texas Public Policy Foundation CEO Brooke Rollins, who now heads the America First Policy Institute, have both called the Trump White House the most women friendly in history. Sanders notes that she was the first working mother to ever serve as White House Press Secretary and Rollins, who was rearing young children when she served as Trump’s Domestic Policy Advisor, has frequently described how the former president made sure her work for him did not interfere with her caring for her children and family.
Winner: Pictures worth a Thousand Words
One of the most important rules of political communication is “show it, don’t say it.” The contrast of these two images with Vice President Harris who made a speech in front of the White House this week, makes that point vividly clear.
Former President Donald Trump dons an orange reflector vest and rides in a garbage truck
Former President Trump does a shift at McDonalds
Loser: Puberty Blocking Drugs
The New York Times reported this week that a doctor who prescribes puberty blockers for children has completed a $10 million taxpayer funded study that shows the powerful drugs have no impact on the mental health of the child, despite being touted as essential to prevent suicide. Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy says she will not release the report because she believes it will be “weaponized” by people who oppose giving puberty blockers to children.
The “people who oppose giving puberty blockers to children” is just about everyone. Recent polling shows that almost 70% of Americans do not want children subjected to cross-sex hormones or mutilating surgeries in the name of changing their gender.
TPPF championed legislation last session to end this hideous practice in Texas. Importantly, most European countries, where these programs began, have abandoned them too, because, at best they don’t work and at worst, they are extremely harmful. It’s not exactly clear how a trans advocate doctor can withhold a report taxpayers paid for, but this is one more piece to add to the huge pile of evidence that the trans-agenda is not good for children and it is time for the country to move on.
Winner: Photo Voter ID
So far, nobody in Texas has complained that they are required to show a photo ID in order to vote, and the latest Gallup Poll shows that almost 80% of Americans believe it is a good idea. Democrats, including those in Texas, continue to insist that requiring a photo ID to vote is an attempt to suppress the vote.
Democrat states like California make sure no one can accuse them of voter suppression. According to the California Secretary of State’s Office, “in most cases you will not be required to show identification” in order to vote. If you are voting for the first time, you simply have to prove your address—an old utility bill will work, but no ID is needed.
My colleague, Chuck DeVore, joined me on the Sherry Sylvester Show this week and we discussed whether America should keep the Electoral College or elect the president by the popular vote. One of the arguments Chuck made against using the popular votes is that states don’t monitor who can vote in the same way. You can listen to the podcast here.
Winner: How About those Dodgers
They wrapped it up in five games after an amazing comeback, and now it’s in the history books.
Losers: New York Yankees fans
The two Yankee fans who ripped the ball out of Mookie Betts’ glove in Game 4 were beyond disheartening. In this election year, in our polarized country, sports has been an oasis for everyone, a mostly politics free zone, starting with the Olympics this summer and rolling into the terrific college football season we are having this year. Sports has been a place where we scream for our teams and relish the competition, without the vitriol that currently permeates too much of our lives. Those Yankee fans, like the UT fans who threw garbage on the field the other week, bring ugliness into one of the only refuges of shared community we have left. It has to stop.
Speaking of the Longhorns, they have a bye this week. The now No. 10 ranked Texas Aggies will take on the South Caroline Gamecocks at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow night.
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.
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.
Listen to the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple or Spotify.
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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.
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.
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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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. Right after the show, today, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations, calling it a “swamp of anti-Semitic bile.”
Netanyahu’s speech would undoubtedly have put him at the top of the winner’s list this week if he had spoken before the deadline. I’ll take a closer look at what he said and circle back on that next week. Here’s who made the list:
Winner: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
Paxton is suing the Biden-Harris administration for their latest requirement that the state actively recruit “LGBTQ+ affirming” foster parents for children who are gay or are suffering from gender confusion or gender dysphoria. This outrageous new federal rule would also require that foster parents pledge to provide “appropriate mental and behavioral health support to LGBTQ+ youth,” an ambiguous statement that could usher in all kinds of bureaucratic interpretation and abuse.
This is one more attempt to inject the inaccurate idea that gender is non-binary into our institutions and adopt the current progressive thinking about how to deal with so-called “transgender” children. Children, including those who think they are the opposite sex, can flourish under loving foster parents. They should not be required to be indoctrinated with left-wing gender theory. Paxton is right for not giving an inch on this.
Loser: Kamala Harris’ Holistic Interview
Even the New York Times panned Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, saying she “failed to answer questions substantively.” That may be the understatement of the year. Harris was simply awful, answering a question about the economy with some gibberish about transportation and its relationship to housing and the need to look at it all “holistically.” She used the word “holistically” three times in 30 seconds.
This was Harris’ first one-on-one interview on cable and she could not have had a stronger champion than Ruhle, who said following the interview that it didn’t matter that Harris had not provided “clear or direct answers” because they weren’t talking about “clear or direct issues.”
By contrast, former President Donald Trump held a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City yesterday where he addressed dozens of “clear and direct” issues from immigration and the economy to Ukraine and the Middle East. The New York Times didn’t like Trump’s comments either – charging that he rambled and talked for far too long. They aren’t wrong about that, but the comparison of the two candidates’ public appearances highlights one of the most basic rules of politics – you can’t beat something with nothing – a rule that is increasingly a problem for Harris.
Loser: Harris Cleanup Tour
After Harris’ disastrous MSNBC interview, Mark Cuban, who still owns 27% of the Dallas Mavericks, went on a Harris media clean-up tour, saying he was supporting the Vice President over Trump because he thought she would be better for business. Cuban doesn’t like Trump’s tariff proposals, but it’s still hard to see how he believes Harris would be better for business, particularly because she proposes to increase the corporate income tax rate to 28% – more than they pay in China or the EU. What could be a more anti-business, job-killing move?
But the bottom line is that Cuban said Harris’ team liked his ideas better than Trump did – so it was kind of a reverse Shark Tank thing.
Cuban told Fox News that he would like to be head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a Harris administration – which may be a very long shot considering how large a role DEI would likely play in hiring, should Harris be elected. Most of the “White Dudes for Kamala” aren’t actually looking for jobs.
Loser: Gavin Newsom Apology for Slavery
California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statement this week apologizing for the Golden State’s role in perpetrating slavery, even though California entered the Union as a free state in 1850. The problem with this kind of apology put forth by someone who played no role in perpetrating the crime is that it requires the apologizer to affirm that our history of slavery continues to cause harm in American life today and deny that any progress has been made in working for racial equality.
Newsom’s apology comes after California spent a couple of years determining how to award reparations to African Americans whose descendants had lived in California prior to 1900. The cost, at $1.2 million per person or about a trillion total, was not financially feasible, so Newsom just said he was sorry.
If Newsom wants to offer an apology that would matter, he should tell the veterans, drug addicts, broken families and the mentally ill who are sleeping on California’s city streets how sorry he is that his state’s drug and housing policies have exacerbated their problems. That’s something he actually should apologize for.
Winner: Bastrop County
Elon Musk is moving the headquarters for “X,” formally known as Twitter, to Bastrop County. Space X and The Boring Company are already located in Bastrop County where Musk has also built Hyperloop Plaza – which includes a bodega and a pub. Musk’s move to Texas continues to benefit the state as the billionaire entrepreneur’s innovation and energy perfectly align with Texas’ productivity and spirit.
Loser: China
China’s newest nuclear submarine has sunk in a shipyard near Wuhan, although it’s not really news, since it happened sometime last spring. China had been trying to cover it up, but news leaked out this week, even as the government still has no official comment.
The U.S. has an advantage over China in submarines and undersea technology and this latest sinking ship makes it clear we will stay in the lead for some time. China’s immediate push in developing submarines is to put pressure on Taiwan and discourage outside intervention. When it comes to military parity, it is always good news if China is losing.
Loser: Britain’s Last Call
England voted in a liberal government the other month and I am adding this to the loser list as a reminder of how progressives think. It seems some in the new Labour Party government believe it would be a good idea to require that bars and pubs close earlier in an attempt to force the Brits to drink less.
Progressive government bureaucrats sanctimoniously note that the state of British health is “morally reprehensible” – a problem they insist must be addressed. They are looking at ways to tackle obesity too. In response to outcries about individual freedom and “nanny state” policies, the government has backed off, but only a little. They will try to work with industries to get them to cut back on drinking hours and fatty foods on their own, but if they don’t, there’s the threat of regulation.
Winner: Texas is Still No. 1
Top ranked Texas is playing Mississippi State in Austin tomorrow and Texas State will play Sam Houston State in San Marcos. Fans will have to maneuver around Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York and Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, who will be campaigning before each game for Austin Democrat congressman Greg Casar, D-Texas and we are all hoping that it doesn’t put a damper on either the Longhorns or the Bobcats. Meanwhile, Texas A&M is playing Arkansas in Arlington – one of those “neutral site” games.
With 37 days to go until the election, we are all looking for a “neutral site.”
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.