Author: Sherry Sylvester

Every Friday morning at 8:30AM I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. Since the first presidential debate 29 days ago, each week has been filled with historically (and politically) unprecedented events that make awarding a clear thumbs up or thumbs down challenging. It is simply too soon to say what the impact will be of much that is happening now, but here’s how it looks to me this Friday:

The week began with President Joe Biden announcing that he would not seek re-election, certainly a rousing call for a thumbs up around our nation and the world as he had repeatedly demonstrated he no longer had the cognitive strength to do the job. But the fact that he made the announcement on Twitter (X) with no video statement caused hours of speculation on social media that perhaps he was no longer alive. This resulted in the Biden team inviting cameras to photograph him getting out of his car and getting on Air Force One, as we all watched, like citizen paparazzi. Then, the President gave a speech from the Oval Office, telling us he is not going to run for re-election, echoing the words of John F. Kennedy that “the torch has been passed to a new generation.” However, he never really explained why he was handing off the torch. His team denies it is related to his health, because, of course, if he’s not together enough to run, can he be together enough to be president? Team Biden also vehemently rejected the suggestion that he was forced to step aside because it appeared he would lose the election.

When he finally spoke, the left-wing media compared him to George Washington, I suppose because Washington also stepped aside when he didn’t have to. As far as I can see, there is no other resemblance. In the end, it was a big losing week for Biden.

After he resigned, almost as an afterthought, Biden announced that he has endorsed his Vice President, Kamala Harris, for president. Kamala got all the delegates she needed to secure the nomination in a day or so after pulling in the all-important nod from George Clooney and the big donors who call the shots for Democrats. The only holdouts were the Obamas who don’t think she can beat Trump and wanted a mini-primary, but they lost that fight. They joined Team Harris this morning.  The Vice President earned enough political points to make it to the winner’s column this week, but her policies continue to make her a big loser. When she was in Congress, she was the most liberal U.S. senator – farther to the left than Sen. Bernie Sanders. For starters, she supports the Green New Deal, and wants to phase out gas-powered cars by 2035 while ending fracking and off-shore drilling. She also wants to decriminalize illegal border crossings and eliminate private health insurance in favor of Medicaid for all.

Her biggest outrage this week was her failure to greet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon his arrival in Washington and then boycotting his speech to Congress, opting to speak to a gathering of sorority sisters instead. Her office issued a statement condemning the anti-Israel protesters who burned American flags and hoisted a Palestinian flag over the iconic Union Station in response to Netanyahu’s speech, but Harris is desperately trying to have it both ways. She is clinging to her sympathetic statement this spring that the protestors are “showing exactly what the human emotion should be in response to Gaza.”  Harris is on the losers list and with 102 days left until the election, she could easily make that list 14 more times with her left-wing policies.

That said, add me to the chorus telling Republicans that it is a mistake to think they can beat Harris by showing videos of her cackling word salads. Although Donald Trump says crazy things too sometimes, voters support the former President because they agree that we must secure the border, support law enforcement, reform education and ensure American energy independence. Harris opposes all that and unlike Biden, she’s focused. Voters need to know that.

That’s why Republican Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance is on the loser list this week for his statement that the country is run by a “bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.” He called out Vice President Harris in his hateful attack, which was a right-wing version of Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” swipe.

Granted, Vance made the comment before he knew he’d be on a presidential ticket where Republicans are already running 11 points behind Democrats among women voters only a couple days after the Dem’s put a woman at the top of their ticket. Trump is winning big with men, but there are more women than men in every age category. Elections always come down to the math.

The teachers unions were out in full force in Houston this week for the American Federation of Teachers convention. Their leader, Randi Weingarten, jumped up and down on stage in the Bayou City, screaming that former President Donald Trump is a fascist and an “existential threat to democracy,” a tired charge that isn’t working for Democrats. Weingarten and the AFT are the same people who closed down schools nationwide for over a year, causing a massive learning loss that many children will never recover from. She ended her screed by proudly announcing that they are the first union to endorse Kamala Harris for president.  The term “loser” hardly seems adequate to describe it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a big winner this week for his speech to Congress where he demonstrated his steadfast commitment to winning the war against Hamas and calling those Americans who march against Israel “idiots.” The fact that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it the “worst speech” ever given in the House Chamber actually lends to Netanyahu’s credibility. (That comment puts Pelosi on the losers list, by the way.)

Perhaps Netanyahu’s speech struck such a chord because during the last thirty days in America, we have become very aware of the constant media attempts to distort reality. We were told that our aging president was on top of his game, then we saw the debate. Next we were told that even Democrat leaders knew for years that Biden was not functioning well and had to go. Then, he insisted he wasn’t going anywhere. Then he was pushed out, but the actual push was covered up too. After that, Biden made a speech in which he said virtually nothing about why he was stepping aside and the media called him the best president in our lifetime. So hearing Netanyahu stand up, tell it like it is – calling idiots, idiots, was a nice respite before we return to the recreating of Kamala Harris, who, we are now being told was never the “border czar.”  Huh?

Americans continue to be united in their belief that the Secret Service’s failure to prevent the attempted assassination against former President Trump is an outrage. The resignation of Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle, who showed little remorse regarding the failure, didn’t reassure Americans that things are going to change. Suggestions going forward that both political campaigns refrain from holding rallies outside is another bad sign.

Happily, after all the “historically unprecedented” nationwide drama of the last month, Americans will almost surely be united by the Paris Olympics which start today and will create many winners for Team USA. Dozens of Texans are competing in the summer Olympics including Simone Biles who needs one more medal to break an all-time record for gymnasts and Texas golfing great Scottie Scheffler who is on his first Olympic outing. Sprinter Gabby Thomas who graduated from Harvard but moved to Austin to train, is also someone to watch.

At the very least it will be a distraction while we wait for Harris to announce her vice presidential pick.  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. This week the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee grabbed almost all the awards in the final tally.  I was in Milwaukee for a couple days, but also viewed the Convention as it was designed to be experienced—via television and digital media. Here’s who won and who lost:

Former President Donald Trump is the big winner for the week, having put on a political convention that will rank among the best ever staged. (I haven’t missed one since 1988, so I am speaking with some authority.) The whole event was super charged by the fact that Trump survived an assassination attempt last Saturday. Liberal CNN commentator Van Jones said that he had not felt such enthusiastic energy from a crowd at a convention since 2008, when Obama was nominated.

The convention was choreographed perfectly to reach out to demographics that normally don’t engage in politics or pay attention to political conventions. There were a bunch of people identified as EDAs, “Every Day Americans,” on the schedule, along with dozens of more prominent but non-conventional convention speakers, notably social media influencer Amber Rose on opening night and Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock last night, just to point out a few. To contrast how amazing this was, some will remember when Republicans thought that having Clint Eastwood talk to an empty chair would engage voters.

The inclusion of the Gold Star Families whose loved ones were killed at Abbey Gate during Biden’s botched pull-out of Afghanistan was an unforgettable moment at the Convention as they repeated the names of every soldier that was killed and the delegates repeated them back. So were the remarks by the parents of Omer Neutra, who is currently being held hostage in Gaza, reminding people of the grim results of Biden’s foreign policies.

Melania Trump is a stunning winner this week. Her letter on Monday talking about her fears when her husband was shot and reminding Americans that every single “politician is a man or a woman with a loving family” was the first expression of the unity message conveyed by the Trump Convention.  The rest of Trump’s family—his children and grandchildren—helped underscore Melania’s message and helped humanize Trump. His granddaughter Kai, who golfs with him, was terrific!

Texans had a great week at the Convention too—speeches by Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, who helms the largest city in the country run by a Republican, was an important message for urban voters.  Our always electric junior Sen. Ted Cruz’s speech reminding convention watchers that outrages resulting from Biden’s open border policies that seem to occur “every damn day” was also show stopper.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s convention speech was tremendous. As the Governor who bused thousands of migrants to Democrat sanctuary cities, he has a national profile now. He showed the entire country the impact of a giant influx of illegal immigrants, demonstrating how border security became the priority issue for all Americans.

Wrapping up my highlight reel is Ambassador Nikki Haley, who may have given one of the most important speeches at the Convention, reaching out to swing voters and reminding them that they didn’t have to agree with Trump on every issue to vote for him because “we have a country to save.”  There were a few boos in the Convention Hall, but they didn’t show up on TV even as her body language made it clear voters don’t even need to like Trump to vote for him. Her best riff contrasted Trump’s foreign policy record with Biden’s, saying “strong leaders don’t start wars, they prevent them.”

Florida Gov. Ron De Santis gave a fiery endorsement speech causing many in the Convention Hall to wonder why the knock on him was that he had no passion or charisma. De Santis gave one of the best lines of the week, describing the Biden White House as the “Weekend at Bernie’s” presidency as he laid out the choice for voters between strength and weakness.

Donald Trump’s Speechwriter clearly is a winner, having written a brilliant speech.  The best line will resonate for the next four months—“I am running to be president of all America, not half of America,” something his opponent cannot say after his frequent attacks on “MAGA” people.

Unfortunately, after the first 30 minutes or so he went off on script and reverted to his long and rambling campaign rally speeches which, as one focus group member reported afterwards, are “very negative.” It’s has long been inexplicable that someone who understands media, entertainment and business as well as Trump does can’t manage to stop talking once he’s closed the deal. The positive spin, of course, is that the current president lacks to stamina to be able to talk for 92 minutes.

That said, the fact that Trump didn’t do as well as he could have doesn’t erase the fact that he did well enough to accomplish his mission and maybe wrap up the election. John King at CNN has an Electoral College map that shows that Trump went into the Convention with enough electoral votes to win and could be looking at a 330 electoral vote wrap up. The only relevant question in politics is “compared to what,” and Trump and his unified convention underscored the contrast with Biden and the dysfunctional Democrats.

Hate to drop another Van Jones quote, but this makes the point:  “A bullet couldn’t stop Trump. A virus just stopped Biden.”

You would think that whoever Trump selected for his vice president should have made the winners list this week, but Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance didn’t do it, although I’m not ready to pronounce him a loser. “Hillbilly Elegy,” was a transformative book for many and his re-telling of his American dream story will be powerful on the campaign trail, but like many conservatives, including some Texas business leaders who spoke to the Houston Chronicle, I have concerns. Here in the Lone Star State, we understand how critical it is to have conservative economic policies to ensure that every Texan prospers.  So when we hear talk from Vance about raising taxes on corporations, increasing the minimum wage, beefing up regulation and bolstering support for labor unions, it is a worry.

He is a brilliant guy and his convention speech was solid, bolstering his youth and his “dad” credentials.  However, it was not as good as speeches given by Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Doug Burgum, Gov. Ron DeSantis or Gov. Glenn Youngkin—four other options Trump had to choose from, all of whom bring more to the table politically and experientially than Vance.  Gov. Abbott and Ambassador Haley were two other wild card vice presidential options for Trump that would have been game changers if he had chosen either one. But Trump went with Vance, who will now be stomping for the ticket in the rust belt “blue wall” states that need to be nailed down for Republicans to win. If he’s successful, it will complete a political re-alignment that appears to be underway in the country.

The saga of the biggest loser of the week, President Joe Biden, is Shakespearian, kind of a combination of King Lear and the death of Julius Caeser. Poor guy, sitting at his beach house with COVID-19, learning the tough lesson that the Democrat machine giveth and it taketh away. I am sympathetic to an elderly man who doesn’t want to give up his life’s work, but Democrats should have thought about that when they shut down any way to challenge him in the primary and pretended that his cognitive decline wasn’t a problem, when, as we are learning now, they all knew that it was a serious issue.

As I am writing this, it looks like he will have to step aside, even as his team insists that he is “in it to win it.” Even if he wasn’t twisting in the wind, Biden would have made the losers list for his panicked promise to remake the Supreme Court and his forgiveness of a billion more in student loan debt, even after the courts blocked his last loan forgiveness vote seeking scam.

Here in Texas, my old boss, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is a winner too, for keeping the pressure up on CenterPoint for their massive failure in the wake of Hurricane Beryl in Houston and for launching a special senate committee on tropical storm preparedness. He is pushing to make sure that Texans are never left without power for days again.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is a big loser.  Every new thing we learn about the security failures at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania reveals how shabby her operation was on the ground. And her handling of the questions for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle since the shooting has been abysmal. Perhaps taking a cue from the President, she refuses to step aside. Biden should take a cue form Trump and tell her “you’re fired!”

Judge Aileen Cannon is also on the winners list for dismissing the confidential documents papers charges against Donald Trump. For those who think Judge Cannon’s action was partisan, read her ruling and then talk to any lawyer friend you have close by.  The appointment of Special Prosecutor Jack Smith was clearly unconstitutional.

Let’s add Tarrant County to the winner’s list for ending a contract with a program called “Youth Advocate Programs” because of its DEI policies. Kudos to county officials for paying attention to the details on these contracts.

Finally, just so you know, Bud Light remains a loser, still reeling from the boycott launched last year when the company used Dylan Mulvaney, a boy who dresses like a girl, to spearhead an advertising campaign. Formally the number one light beer, they had slipped to No. 2 but now they are in the No. 3 position.

That’s it for now. 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 I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers in public policy, politics, sports and culture in Texas, America and the world. After wading through the post-debate fog for the last couple weeks, here’s my list for the week ending July 12.

The “Big Boy” Press Conference at the NATO Summmit last night turned out to be a winner for both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Biden wasn’t great, but he did well enough to demonstrate that his brain doesn’t always operate as it did at the debate, although he did reveal he’s limited to about 3 talking points on any issue before just saying “anyway” and trailing off. The 15 days since the debate have been terrific for conservatives who are not only basking in the vindication of having known for a couple years that President Biden frequently performs a taco short of the full enchilada platter. Now, of course, many in the media admit they actually knew it too and we are watching them flail, stunned that a New York Times Editorial would not convince Biden to step down. Then, they up the ante, figuring that surely an op-ed from George Clooney will get him to acquiesce.

Apparently these people have never watched how a “king slayer” operates on “Game of Thrones.” A knife to the gut is the only thing that reliably gets a king off the throne and a figurative knife to the gut will be required here. Biden said in his press conference that polls would have to show he has no chance to win. It is doubtful such a poll exists or will ever exist. The country is evenly divided. Biden will lose if his cognitive decline costs him a couple more points among swing voters than Trump’s bogus conviction cost him. Because of our polarization, a seismic shift either way is unlikely. If Biden stays in, he will almost certainly be within “striking distance” until November. New polls come out all the time, like the new NPR Marist poll this morning that shows Biden running two points ahead of Trump. The President is not going to pay any attention to the polls.

For a Texas historical minute on this, ask the people who tried to get former Lt. Governor David Dewhurst to step aside after current Lt. Governor Dan Patrick beat him by double digits in the 2014 GOP primary. Polls were commissioned to show Dewhurst he didn’t have a chance of closing the gap. He ignored them. Patrick trounced him in the run-off by 30 points. That’s what is meant by a knife to the gut.

Speaking of Lt. Governor Patrick, he’s on the winner’s list this week for his handling of Hurricane Beryl while Governor Greg Abbott is out of the country. Although the Houston Chronicle will always quibble, Patrick, who is one of the best elected communicators in the country, provided Texans with hour by hour updates and kept the state informed and connected to Texas’ emergency disaster management resources. Of the many mistakes Biden made this week, one was picking a fight with Patrick about disaster declaration, a move which allowed the Lt. Governor to appear on local television all over the state calling the president incompetent or forgetful.

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy is also on the winner’s list this week for his legislation strengthening prohibitions against non-citizen voting. Most Democrats voted against it and it will undoubtedly die in the Senate. Still, Republicans were right to pass this bill because it has already caused Democrats to pull out their old talking points in opposition to requiring a photo voter ID to vote. They call it racist. Photo Voter ID, of course, has the support of virtually everyone regardless of race or ethnicity so this attack is one more blow to identity politics and Democrat credibility.

Vice President Kamala Harris is on the loser list even though she clearly has a better chance of becoming president now than ever in her life as many Democrats believe it would be better to have the word salad queen, known for accomplishing nothing during her tenure in office, than the tragically failing Biden. However, it is important to remember that since October 7, Harris has repeatedly demonstrated that in the Middle East, her sympathies are with Hamas, not Israel. This past week she said the protesters on American campuses are demonstrating “exactly what the human emotion should be as a response to Gaza.” No, Madame Vice President, they aren’t. The only response to the Hamas attack on Israel is unequivocal outrage, not support for the terrorists who perpetrated it.

Former President Barack Obama is on the loser list for so many reasons, but these stand out for this week: (1) picking Joe Biden as his vice president (2) picking Hillary Clinton instead of Biden to run as his successor in 2016 (3) consequently, not having the clout to tell the current President he needs to step down (4) greenlighting George Clooney’s New York Times op-ed telling Biden to drop out, as if Biden, or anyone would care what some actor thinks. Now we hear that Obama’s team is behind the “get rid of Biden” movement. Is says something that Democrats view Obama as the best leader they have.

Nikki Haley is on the winner’s list for releasing her delegates so they can vote for Trump and reiterating that Biden is not competent to serve. And, in case anybody wondered, she also noted that Harris “would be a disaster for America.” Remember that Biden’s cognitive decline was a key talking point of Haley’s presidential campaign which ended in March. Apparently, the national media who claimed they were shocked by Biden’s performance in the debate, didn’t hear Haley when she repeatedly said Biden didn’t have the mental clarity to do the job.

And how about that George Stephanopoulos? First, he was going to provide the Biden interview that would either put the post-debate doubts to rest or provide proof that the debate was not a one-off. It did neither because everyone knew the interview was edited and nobody trusts Stephanopoulos or ABC. Then, he “accidentally” got caught on camera saying he doesn’t think the President can make it for four more years. Apparently, he couldn’t get Biden to demonstrate that during the interview. He’s a loser.

Carrollton ISD is a winner for standing up against Biden’s proposed Title IX rules requiring public schools to treat gender identity as if it were a race or ethnicity– with all the pronouns and gender neutral bathrooms that come with that. Governor Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton had already told school districts to ignore the regulations, but Carrollton asked for the injunction as well, knowing they are risking millions in federal education dollars. Last week they got it.

Let’s put “a Threat to Democracy” on the losers list this week. The “threat” is losing its potency for all but the most rabid. Democrats and their media allies are currently tearing themselves apart to stop the re-election of former President Trump because they insist he is a “threat to democracy.” Polls repeatedly tell us that if Americans believe democracy is endangered, (which is a big if) they view Democrats to be as big a threat as Republicans. An Ipsos Poll recently found that 38% of voters believe Republicans will protect democracy and 38% believe Democrats will. This CBS/YouGov Poll chart below phrases the question a little differently but shows the same thing:

Finally, WNBA star Caitlin Clark is on the winners list again this week for becoming the first WNBA rookie to score a triple double, after tying the record for double-doubles last week. This phenomenal athlete is also quite a jokester. Take a look at her postgame response to breaking a new record here.

Anyway…that’s it. 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 8:30AM, I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. We run the gambit from public policy and political trends to sports and culture in Texas, America and the world.

Here’s my list for the week ending June 28.

The big winner, of course, is former President Donald Trump, who didn’t have a great night at the first, and maybe the only, presidential debate of 2024, but still was good enough to trounce President Joe Biden, proving once again that the only relevant question in politics is “compared to what.” CNN’s Flash Poll immediately following the debate found that 67% of those watching believed Trump won the debate, while only 33% of those watching thought Biden won. This flipped the numbers from 2020 when 60% thought Biden had beaten Trump in the opening debate to only 30% for Trump. CNN’s pollsters also found that 14% are reconsidering their vote after the debate.

CNN’s reputation was also on the line last night and although many of their colleagues in the mainstream media disagreed I am counting CNN and it’s moderators as winners too. Jack Tapper and Dana Bash, came in with truckloads of anti-Trump bias, but with some notable exceptions on questions to Trump, they managed to pull off as balanced a debate as anyone expected the mainstream media to be able to manage. You do have to wonder why they decided to employ a split screen throughout the debate, making the lost and unfocused face of Biden all the more prominent.

That said, the so-called “fact checks” conducted by CNN and the Associated Press were loaded with bias, labeling everything Trump said as untrue, regardless of the facts. Meanwhile, they glossed over many of the looney statements Biden made including his frequent statements regarding the numbers of people coming into the country illegally and his denial of the economic state of the country.

Americans will be unpacking last night’s show in the days to come as Democrats ponder whether Biden was so bad that he has to be removed from the ticket, but whatever they decide, at this point, it looks like the debate could be a gamechanger. We won’t know for sure until we see more polling next week.

Hillary Clinton wasn’t in the big debate last night but she is a big winner this week for endorsing Jamaal Bowman‘s opponent in the Congressional race in suburban New York. Bowman, a squad member who was been outspoken – to say the least – against Israel was defeated by George Latimer who went after Bowman for his blatant anti-Semitism. Bernie Sanders and AOC were backing Bowman, but Clinton took the other side. Clinton moved to New York in order to run for the U.S. Senate and lives close to the district.

Texas is also a big winner again this week for adding more jobs than any other state in the union over the past 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Governor Greg Abbott announced this week that 316,700 new jobs had been created in Texas, news that falls into the “same old, same old” category for people who are paying attention, but we should never forget that our state is the economic engine that helps keep the entire country afloat despite everything Biden has done to slow down prosperity and growth, particularly in the oil and gas industry.

A big loser this week is Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary for the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services who pressured an international group of health experts to take the age requirements out of the guidelines for children to receive sex change procedures including puberty blockers and surgeries. Getting the World Professional Association for Transgender Youth to back off was not easy because many European countries have stopped physical interventions for children suffering from gender confusion because the data show it isn’t effective. However, emails reveal that Levine pressured them to drop the requirements that children be at least 18 because of the political implications in the U.S. where the left still needs to keep progressives in line.

The New York Times has admitted that “…several countries in Europe, including Sweden and Britain, have recently placed new restrictions on gender medications for adolescents after reviews of the scientific evidence. In those countries’ health systems, surgeries are only available to patients 18 and older.”

Two more losers are Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg who announced this week that he has dropped the charges against most of the protesters at Columbia University, despite property damage and days of disruption in New York City. Back at home the Travis County District Attorney Delia Garza also dropped charges against most of the protesters who were arrested at the University of Texas in late April and early May. Both Bragg and Garza both cited lack of evidence and suggested police officers should not have been on campus.

A big loser this week is Washington Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal who is seen laughing at a Fox News chyron noting that a Ecuadorian migrant was arrested for raping a 13-year old New York City girl. Appearing on MSNBC, Jayapal was asked to compare the chyron’s of MSNBC, which read “Soon: Biden announces legal protections for undocumented spouses of citizens” and CNN, which read “Biden announces new protections for some undocumented spouses” to Fox News which announced the rape. Jayapal laughed to demonstrate that she believed it was obvious Fox News was using scare tactics regarding crime and illegal immigrants. For those who are victims of crimes at the hands of illegals, including the family of Jocelyn Nungaray, who was recently killed in Houston, the only appropriate response is outrage – laugher is heinously callous.

Finally, a big win for Texas as Blue Bell ice cream announced this week that their Oatmeal Cream Pie ice cream is back by popular demand. I am not a fan but apparently many people are. Is this a great democracy or what?

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 8:30AM, I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. We run the gambit from public policy and political trends to sports and culture in Texas, America and the world.

Here’s my list for the week ending June 21.

The first big winner is Sen. Ted Cruz who is up 11 points in the latest Texas Polling Project poll. Cruz also reeled in a million dollar donation from casino mogul Miriam Adelson, which should help him fend off the millions Democrats are planning to spend to try to beat him. Finally, in a week when national Democrats have been pushing the idea of “cheap fakes” to suggest that video footage of President Joe Biden’s campaign stumbles aren’t real, Cruz introduced legislation to protect against the actual deep fakes that are being used to victimize women and girls.

The same poll that has Cruz up double digits also found that Republicans say immigration is the biggest threat the country is currently facing while Democrats say that it is the “threat to democracy” – whatever that means. Texas Democrats may not have noticed that Gavin Newsom, Governor of the biggest blue state in America, is a pretty big threat to democracy himself. He went to court this week to take away the citizens’ right to vote on tax increases. At Newsom’s urging the California Supreme Court took a ballot initiative petition off the ballot that had been signed by over a million people who say they are drowning under California’s tax burden. The Court said the anti-tax increase initiative would “upend the way government works.”  Seriously? Pretty sure that was the point of the petition. Newsom is on the losers list.

In other California news, a mayoral debate in San Francisco this week featured incumbent Mayor London Breed asking her opponent to name three drag queens and to provide a list of LGBTQ+ advisors to his campaign. Breed’s challenger, Mark Farrell, declined although he said he has two staffers in the “queer community.” San Francisco was also named the worst run city in the country this week. Perhaps Mayor Breed believes having a list of drag queens at your fingertips is key to the Golden Gate City making a comeback. Put them all on the losers list.

Texans also picked their own winners and losers on that new Texas Polling Project poll. They told pollsters that the institutions they view most favorably are first, local businesses, then the military, the police and churches. Texas state government and municipal government tied for the last spot in the top five, which will be a blow to all those local governments who try to paint state government as the villain. In terms of losers, Texans put corporations based outside the United States at the bottom of the worst five, followed by the criminal justice system, the federal government and the news media.

It’s not clear what to make of the news that the University of Texas at Austin fired about 20 communications staffers this week. According to an anonymous source, the employees were told they were being pushed out so the university could focus on “managing reputational issues and crises” presumably which resulted after UT called the Dept. of Public Safety onto the campus to stop the encampment of pro-terrorist protesters earlier this year. Many professors at UT were also upset after the university fired dozens of DEI staff in order to comply with state law which bans the racially divisive programs. However, despite the wailing from the UT faculty, both those actions likely boosted the reputation of the state’s premier university. Polling conducted for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that almost 70% of Texans supported bringing in state police to stop campus encampments. Similarly, TPPF conducted polling in April which found that 68 percent of Texans – including African American and Hispanic Texans – do not believe there should be special programs like DEI for black, Hispanic or gay students.

Counting it as a win for former president Donald Trump when the New York Times reported last week that if everyone who is eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential election voted, Trump would win by 14 points. Elections are always about turnout, so this number doesn’t matter much in the horse race.  What is important about this data is that it exposes the liberal lie that conservative legislation, like requiring photo voter identification at the polls, suppresses Democrat voters. Texas Democrats have been saying for years that “Texas isn’t a red state, it’s a non-voting state.”  Perhaps now they will take a look and see if their woke policy platform might be why they consistently lose elections.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that the federal budget deficit will jump to $1.9 trillion this year, a 27% increase from the February estimate. Almost half the increase is a result of Joe Biden’s policies on student loan repayment and his massive student loan forgiveness – one of the policies that keeps the president on the loser list. To understand how this works in real life, Ben Kamens, who works for a Democrat congresswoman, tweeted this week: “Just got a call to let me know my student debt has been canceled. This is why elections matter. Thanks Joe Biden.”

Outraged folks dived into the internet to find that Kamens reportedly makes $80K a year and his loan was already being repaid by a federal employee loan repayment program. We’ll add Kamens, whose salary is also paid by taxpayers, to the loser list too for his massive demonstration of cluelessness.

The same kind of cluelessness was visible in Fort Worth this week when at least four City Council members proposed raising the minimum wage for all city employees to twenty dollars an hour – a move that would cost $117 million and almost surely result in a property tax increase for Fort Worth taxpayers.

For a winner who understands that our tax dollars belong to us, we turn to former Vice President Mike Pence, who pledged $10 million this week to fight the repeal of the Trump Tax Cuts which are set to expire in 2025. Trump’s newest tax cut idea, to end taxes on tips is also a winner idea.

Finally, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but if TNT commentator Charles Barkley is really retiring that will be a loss for us all. Barkley is all over the map at times, but his funny and fearless observations on the state of the country extend far beyond basketball. Let’s hope it’s just a head fake.

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 8:30AM, I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. We run the gambit from public policy and political trends to sports and culture in Texas, America and the world.

Here’s my list for the week ending June 14.

The first winner of the week is Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who scored a big win in federal court this week when U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth ruled the U.S. Department of Education did not have the power to change the Title IX law to include men and boys who think they are girls. The Biden administration had threatened to withdraw federal funds from schools that did not comply.

Notice in this news report how NBC News is doing their part to push the transgender agenda. They describe Biden’s regulation as preventing schools from “discriminating against students based on their gender identity or sexual orientation, such as by requiring students to use bathrooms and other facilities that correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth.”

Uh, sex is not “assigned at birth,” it is recorded. It’s a chromosome thing. Follow the science.

The same message goes to a big loser this week, Florida District Judge Robert Hinkle, who struck down Florida’s law banning puberty blockers, unnecessary mastectomies and castrations on children – so called “gender affirming care.” He accused Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republicans who passed the legislation of “racism and misogyny.”

This comes at a time when most of Europe, including England, has stopped providing puberty blockers and other medical interventions to treat gender dysphoria because there isn’t any medical data that indicates it is effective. Counter to the most prevalent propaganda, medical intervention does not prevent suicides in people experiencing gender dysphoria and the side effects of “gender affirming care” are chilling. Counseling and talk therapy are proving a better option. England is especially important to watch on this issue because they have been doing gender transition surgeries since the 1950’s and have the most data to analyze.

Another loser on “gender issues” this week is Liam Morrison, a middle schooler in Massachusetts who lost his free speech battle in a federal court which ruled that his school in Middleborough could bar him from wearing a T-shirt that reads: “There are only 2 Genders.” The Alliance Defending Freedom said, “This case isn’t about T-shirts; it’s about a public school telling a middle-schooler that he isn’t allowed to express a view that differs from their own.” Not going to put Liam on the losers list, but will chalk it up to a loss for the First Amendment. ADF is considering an appeal.

Finishing up what has turned out to be a whole “gender issues” section is a win for women athletes everywhere — Lia Thomas, a man who competes in women’s NCAA swimming, won’t be going to the Olympics. Thomas has been on the loser list for some time.

Of course, Hunter Biden is also a big loser this week. The fact that he was found guilty in Delaware says a great deal about just how guilty he was. The trial told us way more than we want to know about who he is and, unfortunately, we can’t unsee it.

Amarillo City Council is on the winners list for rejecting what was called an “abortion travel ban” to stop women who might be traveling through Amarillo to another state to get an abortion. Amarillo resident Michael Ford most clearly articulated the position of many in Amarillo’s pro-life community when he said, “I firmly believe that what women and families need most in crisis is love, compassion, and support, not the threat of public shame and humiliation.”

Unfortunately, the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard is a loser this week. As if the Title IX stunt wasn’t enough, in another move to pander to his progressive base, Biden’s Department of Fish and Wildlife Services designated the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, which only lives in the Permian Basin, as an endangered species. The Permian is the largest oil and gas producing region in the world and the Bidenites slapped down the endangered species designation in a clear attempt to hamper oil and gas production, despite the fact that oil and gas producers in the region have been working with the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife for over a decade to ensure that the lizard’s homeland is protected. My colleagues at TPPF note that in announcing the new designation, Fish and Wildlife provided “next to no scientific data demonstrating that the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard is presently or will soon be endangered.”

Bureaucrats have been trying since 1982 to use the lizard to slow down oil and gas production, but it hasn’t worked. The lizard is not extinct and I am betting the people of the Permian can produce energy and keep on keeping the little lizard safe.

Another winner is Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. If you haven’t read the latest Texas Monthly profile of him, take a look at it now. Johnson, converted from Democrat to Republican last year, which continues to make him a winner. In this interview, he tells it like it is, saying, among other things, “I learned that the real heart of the Democratic Party is with the criminals and that it feels more sympathy toward the offenders. The Democratic Party does not take public safety seriously… so, I joined the party that’s right on public safety.”

Also, in a series of responses that clearly drove the lefty Texas Monthly interviewer crazy, Johnson said:

Being the mayor of Dallas, in some people’s minds, was me taking something that I wasn’t entitled to. I started getting all kinds of hate, and it was coming, disproportionately, from people on the left. From a lot of white liberals. They would tell me that I shouldn’t run for mayor because I’m doing “so well” as a state representative. It felt like people were telling me to stay in my place… I do believe that some folks, primarily white liberals, have a problem with a strong-willed, competent, self-assured, highly educated Black man leading their city. Period. I said it. You got me to say it. That, as an African American, he’s always felt people from the left who patronized him and encouraged him to “stay in his place.”

Finally, the close out winners this week are the Congressional Republicans who trounced Democrat House members 31 to 11 in the annual Congressional Baseball Game. Texans had a big boost from the start since this year’s game was in honor of former President George H.W. Bush who would have turned 100 on Wednesday. Bush, who played baseball for Yale, was an avid baseball fan who participated in the game when he was in Congress. Play was interrupted by some climate protesters, but they didn’t manage to spoil the fun.

That’s all for now. Have a great weekend.

The Texan Founder and CEO Konni Burton is my latest guest on the Sherry Sylvester Show. If you missed it, you can watch it here.

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.