Author: Sherry Sylvester

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Texas House Democrats came home empty-handed, so you might say this week marks the end of an error. Here’s who made the list:

WINNER: Trump’s “No Apology” Tour on the World Stage

President Donald Trump is transforming the way diplomacy works and how the world sees America. The stature Trump has gained around the world is a complete reversal of former President Barack Obama’s apology tours. Recall that in 2009, Obama told the G-20 Summit that he hoped for some “restoration of America’s standing in the world.”  The same year Obama apologized to France and Europe for America’s arrogance.

With Trump in office, America’s standing in the world is crystal clear, and nobody worries much about style issues like arrogance. That was demonstrated when seven European leaders rushed to Washington, D.C. last week to join him and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a follow-up meeting to Trump’s Alaska Summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a session that would have taken previous presidents weeks to pull together, heads of state from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Finland and the head of the European Commission dropped everything over the weekend and flew across the pond.

Trump’s Alaska Summit did not yield much—as Trump predicted—but it did allow him to orchestrate the B-2 flyover, a not-so-subtle reminder of how, just weeks ago, they had wiped out the nuclear threat from Iran and changed the balance of power in the Middle East overnight.

Meanwhile, the European leaders acknowledged Trump’s critical leadership in ending the war in Ukraine. Italy’s president told Trump “something had changed since he got involved” and Finland’s president said flatly that they would not be as far along as they are without Trump. Sure, the European leaders have questions about his approach, but one thing they do not question is Trump’s commitment to bringing peace—he hates war. Europeans also hate war, and they know Trump is absolutely willing to do whatever it takes to stop the fighting. That’s why they came to Washington.

LOSER: Texas Quorum-Busting Democrats Are Back

The quorum-busting Democrats returned to Texas on Monday with literally nothing to show for their antics. The Texas House passed the new map adding five more congressional seats that favor Republicans, just as we knew they would, and Democrats threatened to take that map to court—again, just as we knew they would.

House Democrats tried to create a little drama in response to House Speaker Dustin Burrows,’ R-Lubbock, requirement that the quorum busting Democrats be accompanied by a DPS officer when they leave the House floor. But considering that the House Democrats delayed legislative proceedings and cost taxpayers millions, Burrows’ demand is quite reasonable.

When state Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, refused to leave the Texas House floor in protest, she was treated like a hero by the progressive left. Former Vice President Kamala Harris called her personally to cheer her on, although we don’t know what wisdom the word-salad spouting former VP passed along.

Even some in the Texas media have noted that they don’t get what Collier is trying to prove. Reviewing the footage of her roaming around the House floor all night, one reporter claimed it was like watching the “bald eagle cam.”

WINNER: Dan Patrick IS Running for Re-Election

My former boss, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, announced this week that he is running for re-election, which was a surprise to no one who has been paying attention. He made the announcement surrounded by state senators who are running for re-election, and several candidates for the state senate who he has endorsed.

Patrick has transformed Texas, championing and passing the agenda that the conservative majority of Texas supports from fighting property taxes—the homestead exemption was $25,000 when he came into office and it’s $200,000 for seniors today—to pro-life issues, border security issues, Second Amendment issues, law enforcement and bail reform issues, infrastructure, and public education. He’s been working to pass school choice since he got to Austin and now it is law. In his spare time, he saved the Alamo.

In reporting his re-election announcement, the Dallas Morning News called him the most powerful legislative force in Texas. A number of years ago, Texas Monthly wrote that “in the history of Texas, there has never been anyone like Dan Patrick.” Texans are lucky he is running again.

WINNER: The Truth on Illegal Immigration

Remember in 2023, when Fox News was the only place on television that was reporting the explosion of immigration at the border? Democrats and the legacy media downplayed the open border invasion and treated Trump and conservatives as racist xenophobes.

Trump won the election because the reality of the illegal immigration overcame the left-wing spin and now we have a study from the left that proves it. The prestigious Pew Research Institute just reported what we knew all along—there were 14 million new immigrants in the country in 2023, a fact they say led to Trump’s re-election. The study, reported by Axios, says:

“Economic upheaval and violence in Africa, Asia and Latin America – and the perception that Biden’s lifting of immigration barriers would make it easy to enter the U.S. – helped drive unprecedented migration, analysts say.”

Thank you, analysts.

LOSER: Court Ruling on Texas’ 10 Commandments Bill

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery temporarily blocked a new Texas law that would have allowed a copy of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in Texas public school classrooms. Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10, which requires that the Ten Commandments posters not be paid for with taxpayer dollars. Instead, volunteers can donate them to the schools.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation sued the state and said in court that, “the state of Texas has no right to dictate to children how many gods to worship, which gods to worship, or whether to worship any gods at all.”

Nobody disagrees with that, but it misses the point. The Ten Commandments is an historical document that provides the foundation for most of the legal systems in the western world.

Texas is not dictating that a child be religious, it is fulfilling its public education mission to ensure that children don’t grow up ignorant, and a child who doesn’t know about the Ten Commandments is ignorant.

A year or so ago, I wrote an op-ed about a CBS 5 Austin news story where the reporter said Texas parents were worried that changes in the Texas public school curriculum to expand cultural references, including some from the Bible, would force students to learn about the “Sermon on the Mound.”

Even though several baseball jokes appeared in the comment section following the news report, it took almost 24 hours before anyone at CBS 5—presumably including many former Texas public school students—corrected the error to read Sermon on the Mount.

There’s lots of cultural ignorance going around. It is impossible to understand what happened in the development of the world—from ancient times to current history—without being familiar with the Ten Commandments.

Judge Biery predicted the issue would go to the Supreme Court.

WINNER: Public School Cell Phone Ban

My teenage granddaughter glared at me when she learned that the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) helped pass Texas’ new cell phone ban in public schools. She believes it is a great injustice to her because, in her view, the purpose of the ban must be to stop students who are using ChatGPT to cheat, which, of course she would never do.

Kids don’t get it, but it’s not about cheating, it’s about getting their attention spans back. Data shows most kids check their phones 100 times a day—focus and concentration is impossible. Cell phone bans improve school performance and also force kids to actually interact with each other. If this conversation is also going on in your family, you should read TPPF’s research summary on cellphones here.

LOSER: Pride Week in Austin

Officials from Austin Pride told Axios Austin that they have lost many corporate sponsors for their annual celebration this weekend and are strapped for cash. This year’s celebration is themed “Silence = Death,” and comes just as the Texas Legislature passed legislation that will prohibit men and boys from entering women’s and girls’ restrooms—which Austin Pride calls an attack.

LOSER: U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett Blinks

On Texas’ new congressional map, U.S. Reps Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, and Greg Casar, D-Austin, ended up in the same district. Doggett blinked first and announced this week that he will not run in a primary against Casar. Doggett is 78 and has served in Congress for 30 years. Casar is 36 and was elected chair of the Progressive Caucus. He is also a member of “The Squad” and the faction of his party which is working to push old Democrats out of Congress.

LOSER: Water Fountains Signs in Virginia

Virginia’s Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, a Republican, is currently running for governor to replace Glenn Youngkin, who is term limited. Earle-Sears, who is African-American, was speaking in Arlington, Virginia last night at a local school board meeting.   Mandating separate restrooms for boys and girls was on the board agenda, so a pro-transgender rally erupted outside the meeting where a woman held up a sign that read:  “If trans can’t share your bathroom then blacks can’t share my water fountain.”

The woman clearly had no idea how offensive her sign was, but leaders from both parties quickly denounced the statement, although the Arlington Republican Party sent the sign-carrier a thank-you note because it revealed so much about who progressives really are.

It is surprising that this issue is still under debate in Virginia after the infamous case in Loudoun County in 2021, when a teenage boy dressed in a skirt, entered the girls’ bathroom and raped a female student. School officials had been reluctant to confront the boy because he said he was transgender. He was convicted as a juvenile.

WINNER? Oklahoma Sooners Selling Tickets to Press Conferences

In the latest example of what college football will be like in the NIL era, the Oklahoma Sooners announced this week that they are selling tickets to the post game press conferences. Two tickets will cost close to $700 for the Michigan game but will be a little cheaper when they play Auburn at home.

To raise money to help pay players and stay in the game, the Sooners are also selling pregame photos on the 50-yard line, the high five tunnel, game ball delivery and halftime field access. As I have reported before, President Trump is working to stop all this in college sports, including ending the bidding wars that make non-stop fundraising critical for every team and protecting non-revenue producing sports and women’s Title IX sports.

LOSER: Make Cracker Barrel Great Again

In an unprecedented move, California Gov. Gavin Newsom followed Donald Trump, Jr. and a country-wide tsunami of conservative critics who roared back after the new Cracker Barrel restaurants CEO, Julie Feiss Masino—who apparently missed the whole Bud Light Dylan Mulvaney fiasco—changed Cracker Barrel’s logo, removing the old country guy and the barrel. She also announced she was going to tone down the country feel of the restaurant—get rid of the clutter. Shares of Cracker Barrel have dropped 12% so far.

In these polarized times, it is hard to imagine any issue that could bring us all together. Who knew it might be Cracker Barrel.

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 on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. While the Texas kids I know are trying to figure out how they will possibly manage being back in school without their cell phones, the first called special session has come and gone. Gov. Greg Abbott has called a new one and we are now in what is officially called 89^th (2), which started today. Here’s who made the list:

WINNER: Trump Takes Over Policing in D.C.

I am reading a great book called “Reveille in Washington: 1861-1865,” about the day-to-day happenings in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War. As everyone knows, despite being the capitol of the Union, Washington was a southern city, and throughout the war it was filled with confederate spies, would-be assassins, thieves, bordellos and all manner of grifters who gravitate to war zones. Still, the historic accounts don’t suggest anyone felt unsafe walking down the street in Washington, D.C back then, like they do today.

When Trump made his takeover announcement, he said D.C.’s homicide rate is six times higher than New York City and three times higher than Islamabad. The media spent several days trying to discredit his crime numbers, then Border Czar Tom Homan suggested that reporters who say crime isn’t a problem should hang out in D.C. at night. Trump invited reporters to go on a ride-along with police.

By the end of the week, even the progressive diehards at MSNBC admitted that no one who lives in D.C. believes the city is safe, and the increasingly pathetic MSNBC star, Joe Scarborough, admitted that many Democrats are cheering Trump’s takeover after too many car jackings, too many shootings, too much street crime. Still, on Thursday night protesters showed up to heckle the National Guard officers’ first night on the streets. The protesters called the officers fascists.

Washington, D.C., has gone to court, of course, to stop Trump, but the lawyers I’ve listened to make it clear that the law definitely gives the president the authority to go in and clean up the nation’s capital.

WINNER: Trump Winning Culture Wars

President Trump earned several spots on the winners list this week, including his historic meeting in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump made it clear he doesn’t necessarily expect a cease-fire agreement, but he is a big believer in face-to-face conversation. As a bonus, the leaders may also discuss a nuclear arms agreement.

But Trump’s latest victories in the culture wars are what earned him an extra spot on the winners list this week. Conservatives used to routinely say that “the culture war was over and we lost.” It seemed hopeless. The left controlled everything and pushed its divisive and hateful anti-American ideology into media, arts, movies, music, education—the culture.

Trump has changed all that because he clearly sees boosting American culture as part of his job—from his attendance at big sports events to his takeover of the Kennedy Center. The New York Times laments that Trump is obsessed with pop culture, but Trump wants to see America through the eyes of Americans. He’s interested in what everyday people listen to and like. He chose Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor and George Strait as recipients of the first Kennedy Center honors under his direction, along with the legendary rock band KISS and Phantom of the Opera star Michael Crawford. In fact, his entire list is so stellar that you have to ask why these icons weren’t given these honors before—perhaps at the same ceremonies where notable leftists including Robert Redford, Barbara Streisand, Robert DeNiro, Oprah, David Letterman, Lin Manuel Miranda, Joan Baez, Norman Lear, George Clooney and a zillion other progressives got theirs. When Clinton, Obama and Biden handed out those awards, there were no snide comments from the New York Times.

Importantly, Trump also announced this week that he has sent in a team to do a comprehensive review of everything that is on display at the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C. His charge is to implement “content corrections where necessary, replacing divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate, and constructive descriptions across placards, wall didactics, digital displays, and other public-facing materials.”

To start with, they can probably take down the homage to the gay pride flag that is currently near the entrance of the Smithsonian Museum on American History, along with a statement in support of transgender men competing in women’s sports.

The Smithsonian Museums have been an outrage for the last couple decades. The African-American History Museum contains no mention of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for example, and instead of explaining Benjamin Franklin’s world-changing experiments with electricity, the museum exhibit suggests that because Franklin had several slaves over his life time, he had free time to do his research.

The Federalist has a good list of some of the most outrageous violations of historical facts, including a long display suggesting that Texas still belongs to Mexico. “I didn’t cross the border,” says one exhibit, “it crossed me.” As for the Texas Revolution, a museum display explains it was fought to preserve slavery.

The Smithsonian Museums are a comprehensive demonstration of how much damage so-called DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs have done over the past 20 years. Every American should support Trump’s effort to dismantle the woke, anti-American narrative.

LOSER: Democrats’ Quorum Bust Completely Fails

We assumed the Texas House Democrats were kidding on Tuesday when ABC News in Houston reported their announcement that they had “accomplished their mission” and would be returning to Texas. That mission, they say, was to show the country that Texas was trying to gerrymander the state’s congressional map.

Unfortunately for them, even their media allies pointed out that they had decamped to three states where Democrats have notoriously gerrymandered the maps—New York, Illinois and Massachusetts—eliminating almost a dozen Republican seats. What the Texas Democrats actually accomplished was to show the country that gerrymandering was not some kind of Republican trick. Democrats have ruthlessly gerrymandered the states where they hold a majority, and gerrymandering has been part of the American political process since the country began.

The Democrats then rolled back the “mission accomplished” rhetoric and claimed all they really cared about was flood relief. They stuck with that for a while and then, yesterday, they held a press conference demanding that Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, adjourn the First Special Session, something he’d already announced he was going to do. Now they say they will return to Texas and fight the redistricting map in court—something everyone already figured they would do anyway. They also say that California must present a redistricting map that will counter any new seats Texas creates.

Yep. Texas House Democrats are demanding that California voters blow up their redistricting process and establish a new one, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for a special election to do just that.

The latest polling says 64% of Californians oppose changing their redistricting process and even if they change their minds, the California election won’t be held until Nov. 4, so it’s not clear how that fits into the Texas Democrats’ timeline. Whatever, it’s a safe bet that they will be slinking back into Austin in the near future. For the record, 80% of California’s Congressional seats already advantage Democrats, even though 40% of Californians voted Republican.

A slanted report in the New York Times explains that California’s map is drawn by an independent commission and that the state was careful to make sure racial and ethnic minorities are represented. That’s particularly interesting because it’s illegal to use race to draw Congressional districts. Also, there’s really no such thing as an “independent redistricting commission.” States that have them stack them to favor the majority party. It just means the politicians don’t have to do the work.

WINNER: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the Texas Senate Pass It All

Meanwhile, doing the work they were elected to do, Lt. Gov. Patrick announced this week that the Texas Senate passed every item on Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session call. In addition to the critically important flooding legislation and congressional redistricting, the list included a bill to continue to cut property taxes, get rid of the STAAR test and end taxpayer-funded lobbying. The whole list is here.

WINNER: Texas Taking Over the Hollywood Kitchen

In one of the terrific ads the “True to Texas” team put out earlier this year to help pass Senate Bill 22, the legislation to provide incentives to movie makers who bring their productions to Texas, Matthew McConaughey says, “if you don’t like what Hollywood’s been dishing, take over the kitchen.”

This week we got the latest report that the kitchen takeover is happening big time when it was announced that a new company called Alliance Texas is opening a huge new sound stage in Fort Worth. A collaboration between Taylor Sheridan—producer of “Yellowstone,” “Landman,” “1883,” “Lioness”—and Hillwood, Ross Perot Jr.’s company anchored in Dallas, it is the largest film production studio in Texas so far.

Conservatives rightly avoid advocating government incentives to create winners and losers in the marketplace, but fighting the cultural war against wokeism and California domination is critically important to the future of America and Texas. The filmmakers in Fort Worth report that the recent filming of the second season of “Landman” resulted in the hiring of 1,092 people for the film crew along with 192 cast members and more than 2,500 extras. Notably, Dennis Quaid was also in the True to Texas ad and he said, “We won’t call it Hollywood, we’ll call it Fort Worth.”

LOSER: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Wobbling on 19^th Amendment

Trump’s Secretary of Defense and former Fox News personality Pete Hegseth needs to take a breath. This week he posted a video featuring several Christian nationalist pastors, one of whom believes the 19^th Amendment (which gives women the right to vote) should be repealed and another whose compromise position is that women should cast their ballots for whoever their husband tells them to.

Hegseth has fired several high ranking women military leaders and continues to be the administration’s primary source of cringe-worthy moments. Recall, he decided to double-down on his strong belief that women should not be involved in combat, just as it was revealed that one of the fighter pilots who bombed Iran was female.

Everyone supports getting “woke” out of the military, but Hegseth completely blew the challenge to get rid of DEI by removing references to African-American war heroes, including the Tuskegee Airmen and the female WASP pilots in WW II, from military recruitment videos and official websites. He was forced to put them back. He stopped the month-long celebrations of Pride Month and drag shows at military bases, which is a good thing, but for some reason, he used the same tactics to try to erase Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the end of slavery that originated in Texas and is now an official federal holiday.

Hegseth let it appear that he might be wobbly on women’s voting rights for several days this week until it became clear it wasn’t going away. In the last 12 hours, dozens of headlines have been posted that read: “According to the Pentagon, Hegseth supports a woman’s right to vote.” Huh? Hegseth probably thinks he’s fighting some battle against political correctness, but he’s not. He just looks ignorant.

WINNER: M&M’s, Skittles and Freedom of Choice

Mars Wrigley North America announced this week that they are working on new versions of M&M’s and Skittles that are free of artificial dyes. They will call these new color-free candies “product options,” although it’s not clear when they will be coming out. As far as we know, Mars Wrigley hasn’t gotten any farther on the project than making the announcement.

It’s hard to imagine anyone will be interested in eating M&M’s or Skittles without their bright shiny colors and it looks like the candy company also has their doubts. The new color-free candy will only be available for purchase online.

Happily, for the freedom lovers among us, you will still be able to purchase regular M&M’s and Skittles, complete with bright colors, everywhere. They call them “choice products.” Is this a great country or what?

WINNER? Ohio State Chopping Wood & Carrying Water

Perhaps in preparing to face the Texas Longhorns in just two weeks, Ohio State coach Ryan Day revealed this week that over the summer he made all his Buckeye players read “Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall In Love With the Process of Becoming Great.” Ohio State believes they have the toughest starting game of the season when they face Texas on Aug. 30. The Longhorns are ranked No. 1 in the AP pre-season poll while Ohio State is ranked third.

According to Day, his goal has been to get his team, which lost 14 players to the NFL draft, to focus on the process, not the result. Doesn’t sound like a winning game plan, but we’ll see.

If the Longhorns want to gain some insight into what the Buckeyes are thinking, they still have time to read the book before game day in Columbus at the end of the month. It’s only 118 pages long.

Have a great weekend.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. President Donald Trump completed his 200^th day in office yesterday and now that we are in August, we can officially begin the countdown to college football season—Week Zero is on Aug. 23 and the Texas-Ohio State game is slated for Aug. 30. Here’s who made the list:  

LOSERS: Another Swing and a Miss for Texas House Democrats

Almost everybody, including the recently deposed Stephen Colbert, have pointed out the irony of Texas House Democrats fleeing to states where Democrats have gerrymandered Republicans out of almost a dozen congressional seats because they have drawn the redistricting maps in their favor.

In 2024, 43% of New Yorkers voted Republican but only 36% of their Congressional seats favor the GOP, and even though a third of Massachusetts voters chose Trump over Harris, the Baked Bean State doesn’t have any Republicans in Congress. In Illinois, where most of the Texas Democrats are hanging out, almost half of voters, 44%, voted Republican but only 17% of their Congressional representatives are in GOP majority districts. Texas Democrats didn’t go to California, where 38% of voters chose Trump, but only 17% of their congressional delegation is Republican.

It is absolutely hypocritical, but that’s the point of redistricting. The party that wins the election gets to draw the map.

The bigger hypocrisy for the Democrats in the Texas House is that they all insist they left the state to take a stand for their constituents, but on most issues, they don’t even represent what Texas Democrats want.  

Texas House Democrats carried the water for the teachers unions and fought school choice every step of the way, even though a majority of Texans, including Democrats, support it.

And 40 Texas House Democrats voted against bail reform, blocking the two-thirds majority needed to immediately make it law to deny bail to repeat violent offenders—an issue that over 80% of Texans support. Texas House Democrats also filibustered the final passage of Senate Bill 12, to remove “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) programs in public schools even after TPPF polling on DEI found that, again, almost 80 percent of Texans—Democrats, Republicans, African-Americans, Hispanics and Anglos—believe all students should be treated the same, regardless of race or ethnicity.

Gov. Greg Abbott is a winner for targeting Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, chair of the House Democrat caucus and ringleader of the quorum bust. Remember, it was Wu who called his Republican House colleagues “monsters” in the SB 12 (DEI in public schools) debate. In an outrageous monologue, Wu charged that GOP House members had not only bullied kids who were different from them when they were in high school but also teach their own children to bully kids today. Unbelievable, right? You can watch the whole debate here—start the replay at 3:42.

Wu and his colleagues seem to have no idea who the people of Texas are or what they think.

WINNER: Texans Support Voter ID, too

The last time Texas Democrats left the state in 2021, they were fighting the Election Protection Act, which, among other things, required that mail-in voters provide the same identification when they vote as those who show up in person. Former President Joe Biden sued the state, but this week, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Texas’ favor and upheld Texas law that requires those who cast their ballots by mail to put their driver’s license number or a portion of their Social Security number on their ballot before they mail it in.

Continuing the battle in court, Democrats had insisted that requiring voters to provide identification violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but the Court didn’t buy it. Neither do most Texans, including Democrats, who support being required to provide an ID before you can vote by a margin of 3 to 1.

WINNERS: Red States Say No to Junk Food for SNAP Recipients

Texas is one of 11 red states that is barring the purchase of candy and sugary drinks with funds supplied to the needy by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The other states are Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia. Colorado is not a red state, but it is also changing its rules for SNAP in order to uphold its reputation as one of the healthiest states in the nation.  

Since 75% of Americans are overweight or obese, you may wonder why this didn’t happen sooner and why Red States are acting first. Well, according to progressives who oppose the ban, prohibiting the purchase of junk food with SNAP funds doesn’t work because nobody can really say what kinds of foods are “bad” for us. Huh? Is there some kind of emerging research indicating that Coke and Snickers bars increase life spans?

Opponents also insist that banning junk food will force people to buy candy and soda with other funds. Not sure why that’s bad. Maybe they will buy less.

But the big reason progressives oppose the junk food ban is because they say it “punishes the poor,” “shaming people” for what they eat. So for progressives, heart disease and diabetes are preferable to being embarrassed.

LOSER: Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced this week that he is about to get the green light to build a nuclear power plant on the moon. Is that a good idea? I don’t know and I’m pretty sure Duffy doesn’t either. The problem is that Duffy is not just running the Department of Transportation, he is also serving as interim NASA Administrator and clearly somebody there told him it was really urgent that we get back to the moon, throw up a power plant and get the lights on so we can beat China.

We are all on board for beating China wherever we can, but even Duffy admits he’s not finished fixing Newark Airport yet, and it is pretty clear the entire air traffic control system needs a serious upgrade.

We’ve got the train mess in California, and while Duffy’s not responsible for I-35 between San Antonio and Austin, and I-10 in every direction around Houston, they are reminders that Americans are spending almost 50 hours a week in traffic and it is costing us billions in productivity. Someone needs to be focused on making American transportation great again. Duffy needs to tell President Trump that he doesn’t have time to run NASA.

Besides, if we need a nuclear power plant on the moon, isn’t that something Elon should do?

LOSER: Harvard’s partnership with the CCP

As if there were not already enough reasons to be angry at Harvard, this week we learned from congressional investigators that Harvard’s Kennedy School has a collaborative relationship with the Chinese Executive Leadership Academy Pudong, which is controlled by one of the most powerful bodies within the Chinese Communist Party.

The investigators include Rep. Elise Stefanik, D-NY, who attended Harvard and helped expose the anti-Semitism of the notorious Ivy League presidents in 2023 who would not say that threatening Jewish students was in conflict with their respective universities’ codes of conduct.  

Stefanik and her House colleagues found that when the Chinese Communist Party wants leadership training, their go-to is Harvard. It is not clear how many students from China involved in this leadership training are currently on the Harvard campus.  

Harvard continues to insist it has the moral high ground in its battle with the Trump administration, who is suing it over its failure to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism, its use of race in recruitment and hiring and its refusal to provide information about foreign students on campus. This latest revelation about its relationship with the CCP is not going to make it easier.  

LOSER: Does Warren Endorse Mamdani? You Betcha!

Speaking of Ivy League universities, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, who once got a teaching job at Harvard by claiming to be Native American, endorsed socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City this week.

If you wonder why Mamdani continues to persist in the news, it’s not just that Democrats are about to elect another big blue city mayor—we have those in Texas—but New York isn’t just any city. At 8.4 million people, the Big Apple is larger than 38 states—about the same size as Virginia. It’s over twice the size as Los Angeles, the country’s second largest city. If one of the big blue states was about to elect a socialist governor—or, as President Trump insists, an actual communist, it would be big news, even for Democrats.

None of that bothers Sen. Warren, (who represents a state that gerrymandered every Republican out of Congress…just saying). When asked if Mamdani reflects the future of the Democrat party, Warren said unequivocally, “You betcha!”

WINNER: Royal New Zealand Air Force

In case you missed the story of the New Zealand rescue of the American scientists from Antarctica, it was called “nothing less than heroic,” and is clearly a winner. One of the scientists was in urgent need of medical attention so the Kiwi pilots flew into the McMurdo Station in complete darkness, wearing night vision googles and braving below zero temperatures. Members of the U.S. Antarctic Project Winter Team had to create a runway on top of the ice so the plane could land. It took 20 hours. Here’s more footage. It is going to be a great movie.

WINNERS: Texas Tech & UT Austin

College football season starts in 15 days! The Red Raiders made big news this week when they landed linebacker LaDamion Guyton, the number one 2027 defensive recruit. Former Red Raider Patrick Mahomes gave Guyton a huge thumbs up.

Meanwhile, Arch Manning’s grandfather, Archie Manning, told Texas Monthly that he predicted Arch would skip the 2026 NFL draft and remain at UT. We’ll see. I find my own grandchildren pretty unpredictable, but perhaps it’s different in the Manning family.

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 on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. As we enter the month of August and finish up the second week of the first called legislative session in Texas, some things are turning out to be more special than others. Here’s who made the list: 

WINNER: Texas Republicans Draw a New Congressional Map 

Who knows where it will all end, but it was big news across the nation this week when State Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, released the first draft of the much-discussed Congressional redistricting map, which would give Texas five more congressional districts and would likely replace their current Democrat representatives with Republicans. There are currently 219 Republicans in the U.S. House and 212 Democrats, and President Donald Trump thinks policy negotiations would go more smoothly if there were more Republicans. Hunter’s map would increase the number of likely GOP congressional seats in Texas and help Trump reach that goal.    

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was in Austin this week to talk to Texas Democrat lawmakers who must vote on the redistricting plan. He accused Texas Republicans of trying to steal the next election. His exact words were, “These corrupt sycophants cannot win a free and fair election, so they are trying to steal it.” 

Last year, President Trump won 56.2% of the vote in Texas. He beat Kamala Harris by more than a million and a half votes. What election does Jeffries think Texas Republicans can’t win? 

One of the map’s targets, U.S. Rep. Vincente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, is screaming that the Texas redistricting plan is “cheating.” U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, has called the new map “voter suppression,” and, of course, U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, says the redistricting move is “racist.” Green’s is also one of the target districts on Hunter’s map. Getting rid of Green, who had to be bounced out of Trump’s first speech to a joint session of Congress in March, might be reason enough for the Republicans to push forward with Hunter’s map.  

There is undoubtedly more outrage to come from Democrats, so here’s a little historical perspective. In 2002, Texas Republicans garnered 53.3% of the statewide vote while 43% of Texans voted for the Democrats. Still, Democrats controlled the Texas congressional delegation with 17 seats drawn in their favor. Republicans had 13 and went to court to get two more. In 2003, when Texas Republicans finally gained control of all three branches of state government, they went back to court to demand a new map. I’m skipping lots of juicy details, but the key point that needs to be made is that back then, the Democrats told the judge that the GOP redistricting plan wasn’t fair.

Reportedly, the judge laughed out loud at the notion that Texas Democrats, who were notorious for outrageous gerrymandering, would charge Republicans with being unfair.   

WINNER: Trump in the Scotland Press Conference  

It has seemed for a while now that Trump is a winner every week, but what can we do? His joint press conference in Scotland with British Prime Minister Keirs Starmer clearly earned the president a place on the winner’s list as he took questions from the international media for over an hour. He talked about the big trade deal with the European Union, his exasperation with Putin and his commitment to provide food to Gaza, all of which was likely big news to the hostile Europeans who hate him. Before he arrived in Scotland, the National, a newspaper, ran a front page story with the blaring headline CONVICTED U.S. FELON TO ARRIVE IN SCOTLAND.  

But his detractors just ended up looking stupid, while Trump demonstrated what a world leader looks like. Whether he was talking about the wars, trade deals or economic policy, his command of the issues, including the details and the numbers, is undeniably impressive, not only for those of us who put up with a frequently incoherent president for the last four years, but also for Europeans who only hear about Trump from antagonistic news sources. Even for those who disagree with him or think he’s lying, these extensive interviews allow viewers to see how he approaches issues.  

Trump seems truly puzzled as to why Russia doesn’t use all its resources to make its people rich instead of spending it on war—the same sentiment that caused him to propose leveling the Gaza strip and turning it into resorts. He’s kind of a “make money, not war” guy. You can listen to the entire press conference here.  

WINNER: Senate Passes Taxpayer Funded Lobbying Ban in the Special   

Gov. Greg Abbott is a winner for adding a ban on taxpayer funded lobbying to the special session agenda. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is a winner for already passing Senate Bill 12 in the Special Session (the Texas Senate has passed a ban on taxpayer funded lobbying at least four times) and Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, is a winner for carrying the bill that will finally stop cities, counties, school districts and special districts, from using taxpayer dollars—which they get through property taxes—to pay hired-guns to lobby the members of the state Legislature. 

My colleague, anti-taxpayer funded lobbying warrior James Quintero, found that that local jurisdictions spent almost $100 million last year paying contract lobbyists to push for programs that serve the interests of local governments, not taxpayers. Efforts to end taxpayer funded lobbying over the last decade have been futile, mostly because the army of lobbyists who descend on the Texas Capitol every day are a powerful force whose connections to lawmakers are extensive and deep. In 2019, after a bill to ban taxpayer funded lobbying was ultimately defeated on the House floor, contract lobbyists who had congregated in the House Gallery burst into applause. This was a rare demonstration of self-interest. The hired guns usually play it pretty cool in public.  

Several years ago, a couple members of the Midland City Council noticed that an Austin lobbying firm was being paid $10,000 a month to represent the city in the State Capitol. In fact, the city had been paying $10,000 a month for over a decade, so we are talking about over a million dollars here. The councilmen investigated and learned that the hired guns were not only doing nothing for Midland, they were also working against their priorities.  

The City Council ended the lobbying contract, but not before noting that it was especially ironic in Midland, since the city is represented in the State Legislature by former Speaker Tom Craddick, the longest serving and one of the most influential lawmakers in Texas history. The news reported that one councilman said, “We have the best lobbyist in Austin already. We have Tom Craddick. You can’t do better than that.”  

WINNER:  American Eagle Has Good Genes  

One of the oddest news reports this week just wouldn’t die. It was the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle jeans ad. Sweeney is a gorgeous blonde, blue-eyed young woman who made a denim ad saying, “I have great jeans.” Ohmigosh! Wokies came out of the woodwork to attack her. How dare she be blonde and happy about it? Plus, they insisted that what she clearly meant was “I have good genes,” celebrating her whiteness, which, as we know, cannot be celebrated, only denigrated. The fact that Sweeney did not slink away in shame is a good sign—maybe this kind of nutty wokeness is coming to an end.   

Sen. Ted Cruz had a good political observation about Sweeney’s blue jeans, pointing out that progressives coming out against beautiful women is unlikely to poll well for them. 

I am hoping the Sweeney ad signals a new trend with commercials that feature a wider variety of people. Wouldn’t it be great to see a few ads where every family isn’t bi-racial? Bi-racial families are great, but in every commercial? What about a black family, an Asian family, or perhaps even a white family? In the world of ads, it seems like people of the same race aren’t getting married anymore.   

LOSER: The Democrats Again  

There’s an old joke about a guy who calls his lawyer’s office and is told by the receptionist that his attorney had recently died. Several minutes later, the guy calls back and the receptionist again tells him of his lawyer’s passing. On the third call, the frustrated receptionist says bluntly, I’ve already told you, your lawyer is dead. The guy replies, “I know. I just like to hear it.”  

That is the same reason I keep listing these polls which seem to come out every week now, showing Democrats are re-defining rock bottom. I just like to hear it. This week, the Wall Street Journal found that 63% of voters have a negative view of the Democratic Party—the lowest rating since 1990—and only 33% view Democrats favorably. 

There’s so many reasons for this—covering up Joe Biden’s cognitive failures, shutting down schools during COVID-19, Zohran Mamdani, California, attacks on ICE agents. This week we got another one. Nineteen Democratic attorneys general moved together to try to  stop the Trump administration from investigating food stamp fraud. Don’t expect the Democrat poll numbers to go up soon. 

That said, conservatives must remain vigilant. The latest analysis of generic ballot polls, which are critical when looking at the mid-term elections, show that Democrats are leading Republicans 45.3% to 43%, reminding us again that the only relevant question in politics is “compared to what.”  

WINNER: EPA Gets Rid of Useless Climate Regulations  

EPA  Administrator Lee Zeldin took steps this week to “drive a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion,” when he rolled back the Obama era rules that declared war on the oil and gas industry—not to mention American cars—with draconian regulations against fossil fuel emissions. Everybody supports action to maintain a clean environment, but people have had it with what Zeldin rightly calls the “climate change religion” which proscribes a series of virtue signals that have no impact at all, like these fossil fuel rules, plastic straws and bags that say “my reusable bag makes me better than you.“ 

But Trump is not just going after useless climate regulations. This week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute reported that the president has created something they call the “unrule,” eliminating 10 regulations for every new regulation they establish. Ten to one sounds good.  

LOSER: Seattle Climate Activists Go After Blue Angels 

They are even sick of climate change virtue signaling in Seattle. The Seattle Air Show Climate Action Coalition was unsuccessful in stopping the participation of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels in the Seafair Air Show this weekend. The climate activists insisted that the jets were polluting the skies of Seattle, but nobody bought it. They also didn’t buy the argument that the jets triggered some veterans who wanted the show stopped.   

There are few things as exhilarating on earth as watching the precision Blue Angels—or their Air Force counterparts, the Thunderbirds. Here’s a preview for the show in Seattle.  

LOSERS: It’s not just California—the Northeast Exodus  

New York and New Jersey lost $140 billion in income over the last decade because nobody wants to live there anymore. Over 2 million people have taken their money and moved to other states—mostly Texas and Florida. We’ve heard all the reasons before—property and income taxes are off the charts, housing prices are astronomical and then there’s crime. Those old blue states are no fun anymore. I was just in New York last week, and everybody is depressed.  

In terms of new arrivals, we got some data from U-Haul this week about where refugees from California are landing in Texas—Austin and San Antonio are the top choices. So if you see somebody in your neighborhood walking around with a sack that reads “my reusable bag makes me better than you,” grab it out of their hands and give them one that says, “Come and Take It,” instead.  

LOSER: Does Kamala Finally Get It? 

The people “just aren’t that into her.” This week Kamala Harris announced that she will not run for governor of California. There were some reports that she didn’t want the job, but nobody believed that. If she got elected, she could just pretend being governor wasn’t her job, like she pretended she wasn’t really the Border Czar. What is more likely is that the polling looked awful and the people who fund the kind of campaigns that are required in a big state like California wouldn’t give her any more money after she forked over more than a billion dollars for her presidential run that went nowhere.    

It is so hard to figure out how Harris, the first woman to serve as vice president, will show up in our nation’s history. Will she just be a trivia question, like Jeanette Rankin, the first woman to serve in Congress and the only person to vote against declaring war on Japan after Pearl Harbor? Perhaps Harris is thinking about her legacy. She also announced this week that she is writing a book, entitled, “107 Days,” about her presidential campaign.   

WINNER: Trump is Saving College Sports  

College football season starts at the end of the month and after the antics of last season—with players scrambling around for the biggest NIL deal and the transfer portal allowing weekly roster shuffles—we all hope we are not watching the beginning of the end.   

This week, President Trump stepped up to say that in addition to trying to end wars and the correct the trade imbalance, he’s also going to save college sports. Trump re-established the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, which former President Barack Obama shut down because he thought it was too embarrassing for kids to fail the fitness tests.

Trump also re-iterated his commitment to college sports, pledging to end college football players being “traded around like playing cards,” and preserving the U.S. Olympic athlete pipeline and Title IX sports for women. USA! USA! 

LOSER:  The Media Conspiracy Continues to Unravel  

All First Lady Melania Trump had to do was send her lawyers over to the Daily Beast office and they immediately deleted an article that appeared to link her with the Jeffrey Epstein mess. Hopefully, this means those stories that are “too good to check” will now be checked, or at least reined in. Meanwhile ABC News anchor  Terry Moran, who was fired in June after calling President Trump “a world class hater,” admitted this week that there was no “diversity of thought” at the network, which he said resulted in “inadvertent bias.” The problem, according to Moran, is that no one at ABC supported Trump so there was no way to know what the other side might be thinking. Aren’t journalists supposed to go ask people what they are thinking, whether they agree with them or not?   

Finally, New York Times columnist Bret Stephen, who describes himself as a “foam at the mouth critic” of Trump admitted this week that “not everything Trump does is bad” and he put out a long list of examples. If you care what the New York Times said (and I totally get that you may not) you can read it here.  

Have a great weekend.

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

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 on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. A year ago this week, former President Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race for president. It’s only been a year, but we are now on day 188 of Donald Trump’s second term and virtually everything has changed. Here’s who made the list this week:

WINNER: Trump Keeps on Winning

It is not surprising that Trump’s approval rating remains solid in the latest WSJ poll because, even when he does thing folks don’t like, like some of the tariff action, he does so much that people absolutely love. Just this week, he pulled the United States out of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), a notoriously woke organization currently pushing a pro-Palestine agenda. Former President Ronald Reagan pulled out of UNESCO too, just to make it clear that the U.S. does not see the world the same way they do.

The president also issued an Executive Order this week that will allow officials to hospitalize homeless people who are mentally ill—which, unfortunately, is a large percentage of them. The president’s action is being portrayed by left-wing media as “forced hospitalization,” forgetting that most of the homeless people on the streets got there because of forced de-institutionalization decades ago, leaving them without treatment or any options other than to try to survive on the streets. Ending homelessness is a tall order, but Trump is right that it is time to start reversing the bad policies that continue to fuel the problem. It is the compassionate thing to do. 

Trump issued another important Executive Order this week that will that stop the big power conferences from turning college football into the NFL. Trump’s Save College Sports order will protect athletes in non-revenue producing sports, including Title IX programs for women.

WINNER: Senate Bill 7 – the Return of the Women’s Privacy Act

Without being indecorous, allow me to say to my fellow women that every time you are forced to use a filthy restroom where men have dribbled all over the floor, you can thank the Texas media. Back in 2017, Sen. Lois Kolkhorst B-Brenham and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick fought to pass the Women’s Privacy Act, what the media called the “bathroom bill,” which would have prohibited men from entering spaces reserved to protect women’s privacy, like restrooms, locker rooms and showers.

Naturally, Democrats opposed this common-sense law, but it was the Texas media that made defeating the legislation their top priority. They brutally disparaged Kolkhorst, Patrick and anyone who suggested that women’s restrooms should be separate from men’s. Every editorial board in the state railed against the Privacy Act, insisting it was, somehow, a gay rights issue to allow men in women’s bathrooms.

The bill failed in the Texas House and as a result, the state is now proliferated with gender-neutral restrooms that are dirty and unsafe. Gov. Greg Abbott added women’s privacy to the Special Session agenda and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made it a top priority—Senate Bill 7. Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, will carry the bill in the Senate and Valoree Swanson, R-Houston, is sponsoring HB 23 in the House.

Fortunately, the era of TransTyranny is coming to a close. Among the other winners this week are the 27 attorneys general nationwide who have demanded that the NCAA return the trophies to women who lost them over the past several years to men who infiltrated women’s sports. Meanwhile, a loser is artist Amy Sherald who cancelled her upcoming exhibit at the Smithsonian this week because there were questions about her painting of a trans Statute of Liberty which she says “reflects the full, complex truth of American life.” 

The “full complex truth of American life” is that there are only two genders … and nobody likes a dirty public restroom.  

LOSER: Pete Hegseth on Women

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth frequently states that women do not belong in combat—a principle that makes sense most of the time to most people. However, a news report this week revealing that one of the pilots flying the B-2 that bombed Iran was a woman, makes it clear that the Defense Secretary needs to clearly define his terms. 

There is broad support for ending DEI programs in the military. Promotions and job selection should never be based on race and gender. But that doesn’t mean women can’t fly combat missions. What it means is that the selection of every warrior for every job in the military must be based on merit, not some kind of identity marker. We want the best qualified people in every combat role. That may eliminate most women for some types of combat (based on whatever merits standard is defined for the job). But Hegseth shouldn’t be stupid. No one wants to shut out some hot-shot fighter pilot just because she’s a girl. 

LOSER: Harris County Property Tax Payers

A report in the Houston Chronicle this week revealed the salaries of officials in the state’s largest county and local taxpayers are undoubtedly experiencing some sticker shock. The top earners are pulling down salaries that are close to half a million dollars, including the chief of staff for one of the county commissioners. But even the average salaries are off the charts in a county where the per capita income is under $40K. The median household income in Harris County is $73K. Harris County is currently facing a $270 million budget deficit and County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat, says they may need to raise taxes, because that’s how Democrats think.

The legendary Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale told a MAGA Rally in Houston this week that he feared the Bayou City was going to turn into Detroit. It will be interesting to see how long the people of Harris County will continue to keep Democrats in charge.

 LOSER: City of Dallas Faces Death Star

Meanwhile, the Texas Public Policy Foundation recently notified the city of Dallas that it has 133 ordinances that violate the so-called “Death Star” law which prohibits local jurisdictions from creating regulations that conflict with state law.

Dallas has 90 days to repeal the ordinances or otherwise amend 133 ordinances that are preempted by state law—or face legal action. The “Death Star” bill was challenged by San Antonio, El Paso and Houston, but the Third Court of Appeals ruled earlier this month that it can go forward. So far, there’s been no response from the people in Big D.

WINNER: Scotty Scheffler Inspires the World

After what may be the best tournament of his career so far, it was great to hear golfer Scotty Scheffler clearly say that faith and family are the first priorities in his life’s—golf is third. After the British Open there is little doubt that he is the best golfer on the planet.

 It is not odd for Americans to speak out about the importance of their faith and their families, but Europeans don’t hear that testimony very often so it is wonderful that he put it out there. 

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 on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. As we enter the “dead of summer” with what must now be officially referred to as “the first called Special Session,” scheduled to start Monday in the Texas Capitol, here’s who made the list:

Here’s the list:

WINNERS: Taxpayers No Longer Must Fund NPR and PBS

Not sure why this was even debatable, but earlier this week, President Donald Trump actually had to waste his valuable time convincing some Republican senators to move forward with clawing back federal funding from National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of his rescissions package.

“Clawing back,” is the appropriate term. Conservatives have been fighting tooth and nail to end taxpayer funding of the left-wing public media outlets for decades. NPR and PBS have always been among the most biased news sources, because they don’t even have market forces to keep them even-handed. In recent history, they pushed the Russia-gate story, censored anyone who suggested COVID-19 might have come from a lab leak, and refused to cover Hunter Biden’s laptop, according to an insider report, because editors were worried the story “might help Trump” win the election.

NPR and PBS have always insisted that they don’t really need the federal money, but when it finally was clear that the gravy train was coming to an end, they totally panicked. Public media leaders insisted that if they lost the billion dollars in federal funds, people in rural areas would have no way to get news.

I grew up in a rural area and I do not recall any point in my life when someone actually said, “we’ve got to turn on NPR or PBS to get the news.”

The government should not be funding media—left, right or whatever. That’s a communist thing. I usually am not a fan of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, but her congressional hearing comments to the leaders of PBS and NPR sum it up perfectly: “We believe that you all can hate us on your own dime.”

LOSER: Things are Really Bad for Democrats

The fact that things aren’t going well for the Democrat Party is not really news, but I love reminding everyone how bad it is and this week it got a lot worse. A new Quinnipiac University poll found that only 19% of Americans approve of the Democrats in Congress. But wait! There’s more:

1. Their candidate for mayor of New York City is a communist and an anti-Semite. In a country where 80% of Americans support Israel and reject communism, this is a bad look.
2. The former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, announced this week that he will re-enter the race for mayor of New York City, thereby virtually assuring that the communist, anti-Semite will win.
3. In Texas, no congressional representative raised more money than Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, from Dallas, who raked in $3.8 million. Crockett is also a big leftist who frequently appears on the Losers List. She is the awful person who makes fun of Gov. Greg Abbott because he’s in a wheelchair and has called President Trump (and most Republicans) racist. In more bad news for Democrats, their top Congressional fundraiser is another socialist—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  
4. Another poll by a Democrat group found that Democrats are continuing to hemorrhage male voters who perceive them as “weak and woke.”
5. Democrat leaders who try to make things better like California Gov. Gavin Newsom look really silly when they decide the key is to curse more and try to “sound authentic,” like Trump.
6. Texan Mark Cuban—a Democrat sympathizer—seems to get it. He said this week that Democrats have to get a better message than “Trump sucks.”
7. Finally, going into next week’s Texas Legislature’s special session, which features a charge from Gov. Greg Abbott to draw a new map of congressional districts, Texas Democrats haven’t got much of a plan beyond blaming Gov. Abbott for the flood. They could leave the state and break quorum, so the state Legislature couldn’t conduct business, or they could try to get a big blue state to create new Democrat congressional seats to counter what happens in Texas. None of that looks likely, but it will be fun to watch.

LOSER: National Teachers Union President Screaming in Philadelphia

It’s been all over the Internet, but in case you missed the YouTube video of National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle screaming like a crazy person at the group’s convention in Philadelphia, you can watch it here. Her performance has been widely described in the media as “unhinged,” so I went to the thesaurus to find a similar term—deranged was suggested, along with unbalanced, mad and “crackers.” I’m going with “crackers.”    

A lengthy report in the Free Press provides a detailed narrative of the latest agenda from the NEA which includes vows to stop President Trump’s fascism, eliminate ICE and resist the Supreme Court ruling that allows parents to opt their children out of “gender ideology” classes.

The NEA has also pledged millions for local political campaigns and says it will support the “No Kings,” movement, which nobody knows exactly what is, but apparently isn’t over. The NEA doesn’t seem to be pretending anymore that they care about what happens to our children.

A Texas teacher is quoted in the Free Press story saying she was told there was no time to discuss ways to improve reading and math skills (which continue to be in the tank across the country) because they had to “fight Trump.”

Texas parents finally defeated the teachers’ unions in the last legislative session after fighting for over three decades to pass school choice and establish the largest Educational Savings Account program in the country. But the screaming coming out of Philadelphia makes it clear that as long as the teachers unions can collect dues—and in most states teachers have no choice but to pay them—their wars against a good education aren’t over. To review NEA’s record, only 26% of American high school seniors are proficient in math and only about 40% of fourth graders are reading at grade level. Taxpaying parents are the ones who should be screaming.  

WINNER: Trump’s Garden of American Heroes

One of the things that was included in the Big Beautiful Bill was a small amount of funding to start the “Garden of American Heroes” that President Trump proposed back in 2020 when the country was obsessed with tearing down statues. Trump thinks putting up more statues is a better idea and, so far, his “Garden of American Heroes” will feature 250 people.

Take a look at who is on the list and you find most people you would expect—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John and Sam Adams, Davy Crockett and Martin Luther King, but there’s also Bob Hope and Kobe Bryant. Lauren Bacall is next to Clara Barton and there are even lefties, including Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Woody Guthrie.

The Washington Post report about the Garden includes the lie Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders have outlawed honoring Blacks, Hispanics and women, which is, of course, ridiculous. No word yet on where the Garden of Heroes is going to be, although there appears to be a push to put it near Mt. Rushmore, which sounds like a great spot.

LOSER: Biden Team Takes the Fifth — Week 2

One big loser last week was former President Joe Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, who invoked the Fifth amendment at a congressional deposition when asked if he believed former President Biden was up to doing the job as president, or if anyone had asked him to lie about the president’s health.

This week, Anthony Bernal, former First Lady Jill Biden’s Chief of Staff, also took the Fifth when asked if he believed Biden was able to execute his duties as president. Clearly, these guys know they are in trouble. Invoking the Fifth means you refuse to answer because telling the truth could incriminate you.

They clearly believe somebody is going to be prosecuted and they are taking steps to make sure it isn’t them. Meanwhile, Biden’s son Hunter is sticking to the script. Sounding like a character from Game of Thrones, Hunter said Democrats lost the election because they weren’t loyal to his father. Here’s the whole unbelievable quote:

We lost the election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party. We had the advantage of incumbency. We had advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down.

There are rumors that the House Oversight Committee may subpoena Jill Biden to testify. Hopefully, that would be more interesting than the doctor and her chief of staff. Hard to imagine the former First Lady taking the Fifth.

WINNER: Trump Gets another Victory from SCOTUS

Last week, President Trump was on the winners list when the Supreme Court ruled the obvious—that as head of the executive branch of the government, he has the right to reduce the size of the federal work force, which is part of the executive branch. This week, Trump won at the Supreme Court again when the high court ruled he could fire 1,300 employees at the Department of Education. The Department of Education was created by former President Jimmy Carter as a favor to the National Education Association, so it’s hard to figure how anyone thought that another president wouldn’t be able to fire employees or even shut it down.  

LOSER: Stephen Colbert is Finally Done

Was it something he said? Probably not. CBS announced this week that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will be discontinued after May of next year. CBS says it is a financial decision, and I believe them. According to the LateNighter ratings, “Excluding Gutfeld!, aggregate linear late-night viewership was down -9% year-over-year among total viewers, and -21% in the demo.”

According to their report, “Fox News’ Gutfeld! …leads all of the shows we track among both total viewers and viewers aged 18–49.

The difference between Gutfeld and Colbert is that Gutfeld is not a progressive activist disguised as a comedian who spends every evening bashing Trump and MAGA.

Colbert and his defenders are ignoring the data showing nobody is watching him and instead are trying to make him a martyr, pretending that he was fired because he criticized CBS for the $16 million settlement they paid President Trump for doctoring their “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris to make her sound coherent.

Monty Python director Terry Gilliam said this week that he believes Donald Trump’s re-election has brought comedy back and people can laugh again. Monty Python is the gold standard in comedy. It will always be remembered. I’ve already forgotten why anybody ever thought Stephen Colbert was funny.

WINNER: Kristi Noem Could End Travel Size Bottles

Granted, so far it’s just an idea, but Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this week that she is looking at getting rid of the requirement that only allows 3.4 ounces of water, toothpaste, shampoo—any liquid you really need—in your carry-on bag when you board a plane.

It’s almost too much to hope for. After getting rid of the “take off your shoes,” rule last week, we now have hope the tiny bottles rule is the next to go. The tyranny of TSA security could be coming to an end.

LOSER: SEC Confuses Texas Songs

Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey seemed sincere when he apologized to University of Texas Coach Steve Sarkisian, who took the stage at SEC Media Days in Atlanta to the tune of the Texas Aggie War Hymn.

Sankey said, “Mistakes happen. No ill intent there,” but not every Texas fan believed him. Texas is currently one of the teams at the top of the list favored to win the national championship this year, and nobody wants anything that could be construed as a bad omen. There are lots of yards to cover between now and then. Texas will play Texas A&M in Austin on Nov. 28.

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.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. The tragedy of the devastating floods in Central Texas last weekend hang heavy over Texas now, as search and recovery continues. Texans have mobilized from all over the state to help in Kerr and the surrounding counties, once again demonstrating the “Texas strong” spirit of community and caring.

Here’s the list:

WINNER: Trump a Year after Butler

It has only been a year. Last July 13, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, narrowly missing a fatal blow from a would-be assassin. There was little doubt after that day that he would be re-elected, and he went on to transform the country and the world, engaging in the kind of leadership that had been sorely missing during the years of Joe Biden. The president will be in Texas today to talk with community leaders and survey the flood damage.

LOSERS: Flood Blamers and Haters

After the rivers over-flowed last weekend, it only took minutes for Trump’s enemies to swoop in and blame him for the flood deaths, charging that cuts to the National Weather Service had hampered their ability to get warnings out to the storm-affected areas. Even the weather service workers’ union says that wasn’t true. Still, there is a segment of the population who will undoubtedly go to their graves blaming Trump for the flooding.

Unfortunately, those predictable partisans weren’t the worst of it. Kudos to Houston Mayor John Whitmire who made sure the Bayou City was totally disassociated from Sade Perkins, who posted an ugly TikTok reel charging that the girl’s camp, where many young people were lost, was racist, and the response to the tragedy was only because the girls were white.

“If this were a group of Hispanic girls out there, this would not be getting this type of coverage that they’re getting, no one would give a f–k,” Perkins said. She went onto say that MAGA would be “happy to see LGBTQ kids floating down the river.”

Her sentiments were echoed by Christina Propst, a Houston pediatrician who said Kerr County MAGA voted to gut FEMA and MAGA voters got what they deserved. “May all visitors, children, non-MAGA voters and pets be safe and dry,” Propst said.

There simply are no words to describe these despicable individuals. It is important to note that these are not marginal crazy people. One is a physician and the other apparently showed enough competence to be appointed to a position in the city of Houston. Those who say this happens on both sides are wrong. I live in San Antonio, where, too often, bodies of illegal immigrants must be pulled from the back of an 18-wheeler after a failed smuggling attempt. Even the most vocal opponents of illegal immigration do not celebrate those deaths. This kind of hate among progressives is simply inexplicable.

WINNER: A-F Public School Ratings Finally Free for Parents to See

Giving every school a grade based on student performance is an old idea in education reform. I first heard it from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who called it the most consequential step they took in the Sunshine State to bring about change in public schools. Letting parents know how their local schools perform increases parent participation and involvement.

Texas attempted to follow Bush’s lead over a decade ago, but Texas teachers’ unions blocked A-F school ratings legislation at every turn, insisting that students would be traumatized if they knew they were attending a failing school. (Before A-F, Texas schools were rated either Pass or Fail). When A-F ratings finally passed in 2017, hundreds of schools sued the state to block the ratings from being made public. COVID-19 provided another excuse for delay, but this week the 15th Court of Appeals gave the Texas Education Agency the green light to release the latest reports—another important victory for parents.

WINNER: The End of the TSA Shoe Rule

In terms of quality of life, perhaps the best thing that happened to Americans this week was the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) decision to stop forcing people to take off their shoes while going through security to board a plane. The crazy shoe bomber (and time has shown he was crazy) got on an American Airlines flight in 2001 with some kind of explosive in his tennies, and the rest of us have suffered 23 years of TSA tyranny as a result. Now it’s over. Walk free, walk proud.

LOSER: Superman Loses the American Way

The latest actor to play Superman, a guy named James Gunn, has decided we are living in mean times here in America and his portrayal of the iconic hero needs to send a different message. That’s why in the new movie about the Man of Steel, Superman will not be standing for “Truth, Justice and the American Way,” he’ll be standing for the “human way.”

He probably won’t be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound either. Good to know Texas is working to take the movie business out of Hollywood. Box office predictions for the new Superman are not good.        

LOSERS: The Many Biden Cover-Up Stories

There is yet another book out about how the Biden team covered up the truth about his cognitive decline. Even though, like most Americans, I could see Biden was in no shape to run the country, these tell-all books detail the wide-network involved in pretending he was fine and the lies that were told. They are hard to put down.

The latest is called, “How Trump Re-Took the White House and Democrats Lost America,” and includes a fun snippet reporting how Vice President Kamala Harris told the Democrat governors that, regardless of what they thought, they had to rally behind Biden to save democracy. Then she dragged New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz out in front of the White House to say “all the Democrat governors were behind Biden.”

Well, they weren’t and some of them got pretty angry—but none of them said anything at the time. Meanwhile, this week we saw Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, at a congressional hearing, take the Fifth when he was asked if he had been told to lie about the president’s health. He was also asked if he believed the president was fit for duty.   He didn’t answer that question either. He quickly scurried out of the Capitol, but he’s going to have to talk sometime. We can stand by.    

The Biden cover-up is a much bigger deal than Watergate or the Clinton scandals, but it’s going to take a long time to uncover it all. There will be more hearings, more books, probably some trials before it’s over, but no matter how it is resolved, it is going to be a great movie—one of those long Netflix series, like The Crown.    

WINNER: Sotomayor and Kagan Agree Executive Branch Can Reform Executive Branch

Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan voted with the majority in an 8-to-1 ruling this week affirming the right of the Trump administration to reform the federal government work force. Although there can still be an appeal, specifically the court determined that the Trump administration’s executive order directing agencies to develop plans to reduce the size of the workforce is likely lawful.

Labor unions and local governments had taken the president to court, insisting that Congress must sign off before the federal workforce could be reduced.

Seriously? Congress? They actually said that, and a lower court backed them up. So did Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She could have made the loser list this week, but I wanted a couple left-leaning winners for balance.

LOSERS: Colin Allred, Beto O’Rourke and Joaquin Castro

In what was called a “shock poll” this week, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, came out as the top choice for the Democrat U.S. Senate nomination in Texas over the more familiar names of former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, who was defeated by Sen. Ted Cruz last year, former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, who has been defeated by Ted Cruz, Joe Biden and Greg Abbott and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, who has never run for statewide office, but has been threatening to for at least 20 years.

In a University of Texas at Tyler poll this spring, 30% of Texas Democrats also said Crockett represented their “shared values.” This is the same Jasmine Crockett who has referred to Gov. Abbott as “Governor Hot Wheels” and stated that anyone who supports Trump is “mentally ill.” Plus, she’s been spotted pushing disabled people out of her way in order to board an airplane, so you have to wonder what values those Democrats are talking about.

Winner: Back to Back Wimbledon

So we can watch the best tennis in the world this weekend following the perfect opening acts—Queen Camilla showed up to shake hands with all the tennis stars and legendary British actor Hugh Grant was spotted falling asleep. Probably ends any chance that he will ever be “Sir” Hugh Grant, but there will undoubtedly be some drama on the courts.

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.