Category: Winners & Losers

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Currently, it feels like we are living in scenes of “Game of Thrones” in which dark, ominous voices keep warning us that “winter is coming.” As we prepare to face down a national storm, here’s who made the list.

WINNER: Trump Gets the Win at Davos

Americans who pay attention knew before President Donald Trump got on the plane to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that he was going to get some kind of deal on Greenland. In the end, it all seemed to be handled almost immediately after Air Force One landed in Davos. Trump said he had a framework to move forward with in Greenland, so he would not have to slap a bunch of new tariffs on Europe, which was circling the wagons around Denmark. And, of course, he added that there was never any real chance that he’d put boots on the ice to force the takeover.

No details regarding the framework were provided, but talks with Denmark will continue and the scuttlebutt is that the U.S. will expand its military bases – which we could already do.

Some, including the Free Press’s Niall Ferguson, have suggested that Trump’s decision to make Davos all about Greenland was another example of what a great strategist he is. He distracted the European leaders with Greenland to buy himself more time to consider Iran.

If that’s true, it totally worked. As U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant told the European elite to chill, saying, “America First doesn’t mean America alone,” Trump posted a graphic on Truth Social that showed America taking over Greenland, Venezuela and Canada. The European leaders took the bait and went ballistic, lining up to take turns taking umbrage. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney became their spokesperson, with a long whiney speech insisting that the West could no longer count on the United States. Carney said international relations were irretrievably broken because the World Health Organization, the Conference of Parties (one of the UN’s climate change outfits) and the United Nations have been stripped of their power.

Seriously, Carney actually listed the World Health Organization first, the people who “managed” the global COVID 19 pandemic and currently push international guidelines for “gender affirming care.” If anyone should be stripped of power, it’s the WHO. As for the UN, its mission is to protect world peace. Let’s compare its heir success rate to Trump’s.

In the end, Trump gets the “W.” He controlled the entire narrative and came away with the framework of a deal on Greenland and a template for a new Board of Peace. All the European leaders have to show for the week is telling the folks back home that they gave the Canadian Prime Minister a standing ovation.

LOSER: The Media’s “Bible-Infused” Curriculum

The term “Bible-infused curriculum” popped up again this week in the Texas media. It is a dishonest and deliberately misleading term designed to hamper all those working to improve reading skills in public schools.

At the direction of the Texas Education Agency, following the lead of the Texas Legislature, the State Board of Education has created a required reading program for Texas schools, including listing about 30% of books and readings that are required for students.

What is causing Texas reporters to light their hair on fire is that Texas students will be exposed to 10 excerpts from the Old and New Testaments during their 12 years in public school. Kindergarteners will be required to learn the Golden Rule and hear the story of the Good Samaritan. “Jonah and the Whale” will be required reading for seventh graders, along with the Sermon on the Mount. These are foundational documents for human rights and Western civilization, which any minimally educated person of any faith should be familiar with.

Opponents of the reading program showed up in meetings holding signs that read: “Public School is not Sunday School.” The Houston Chronicle posted the entire reading list, which includes over 320 books and readings, so it’s hard to see how 10 excerpts from the Old and New Testaments results in a “Bible-infused curriculum.”

LOSERS: Democrats in Texas, Gavin Newsom and the Rest of Them

Texas House administrators announced this week that the 50 Texas Democrats who left the state last summer to block a quorum vote on a new Texas congressional redistricting map will be fined $9,354 each to cover the cost of the 14 days the House was unable to do business while they were gone, as well as their share of $125,000 the state police spent trying to round them up.

Democrats spent their campaign funds to charter planes to Chicago and Washington, D.C. and pay for hotels, but Texas House rules require that they come up with the money themselves to pay the fines. The lawmakers are trying to portray themselves as heroes (or martyrs or even just people who matter), but even on left wing television shows in Chicago and New York, they were being asked “why are you here?” They called it a “quorum bust,” but it was just a bust. The redistricting bill passed.

Meanwhile, as national Democrats try to resurrect their brand, California Gov. Gavin Newsom refused to give a straight answer to conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro this week when he asked him whether boys should play in girls’ sports.

Newsom has said in the past that he didn’t believe boys playing in girls’ sports was fair, but he was blasted by his Democrat base, so this week he inexplicably replied to Shapiro, “there but for the grace of God.”

He doesn’t make clear, “but for the grace of God,” what? Would he be a boy who wanted to play on a girls’ team? Would he be a girl who had to fear playing against a boy? Would he have been caught on tape like Kamala Harris, saying he totally supports sex-change surgeries paid for by the government? “For the grace of God,” what?

Polling clearly indicates that American oppose boys playing in girls’ sports, and it was a factor in the Democrats’ wipeout defeat in 2024. Still, leading Democrat voices don’t have talking points on this issue. Axios, a left-leaning media source, asked this question of Harris, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, California Rep. Ro Khanna and California Gov. Gavin Newsom—and they all declined to comment.

LOSER: Norway Cheats at Skiing

We have to add Norway to the losers list this week after the International Ski and Snowboard Federation suspended two coaches and an equipment manager who were caught on tape during the winter Olympics reconfiguring the ski pants of two members of Norway’s national ski jumping team. In what is being reported as a national scandal, the coaches apparently managed to stitch something into the ski pants that made them more aerodynamic, so the skiers could fly even higher through the air. It’s kind of a reverse of the New England Patriots deflating footballs.

The cheating scandal has shaken Norway’s national identity. They have dominated Olympic skiing for at least 100 years, and have always been sticklers for following the rules. However, every skier is going to want those ski pants, which will undoubtedly become legal, and every athlete will have them by the time the next winter Olympics roll around. Can’t wait to watch.

LOSER: Texas Still Moving in on Wall Street

President Donald Trump is a big fan of Texas and most Texans love him, but he is also a native New Yorker and he made it clear this week that the New York Stock Exchange is in bad shape if Texas is opening up its own stock exchange in the Metroplex.

Trump criticized New York City’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and New York businesses for letting it happen—although there’s no indication that he blames Texas for the financiers making the move. Dallas Mayor Eric Adams calls Dallas the home of capitalism.

WINNER, LOSER? Kamala Harris

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is one of the most prominent Jewish leaders in America. He was on Kamala Harris’s short list for vice president and is now always listed as a potential Democratic candidate in 2028. He is releasing a new memoir, which made news this week when he reported that Harris’s vetting team asked him if he’d ever been an agent of the Israeli government. Shapiro rightly viewed the question as hostile and anti-Semitic.

Harris made her pick while progressive Democrats around the country were marching against Israel and in support of Hamas terrorists, so most believed there was never a chance she would pick a Jewish running mate. We do not know if she asked the guy she actually did pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who had made dozens of trips to China, if he was a Chinese agent. Apparently, she also didn’t ask Walz about the Somali fraud investigations already underway in Minnesota.

Shapiro believes Harris’s team was incompetent, but not everyone agrees. Harris is still touring the country selling her book and, reportedly, the former vice president is drawing big crowds in the South. Jacksonville, Mississippi gave her the keys to the City. Women are cheering her on, apparently unaware that the transformation of Mississippi schools, which have moved the Magnolia State from the bottom to the top in reading and math scores, was accomplished only when the locals managed to push back the teachers unions, who were one of the largest financial supports of Harris’s presidential effort.

LOSER: Global Trust at an All Time Low

A new global report on the disappearance of trust in institutions provides a bit more insight into what happened in Davos this week. Researchers found that increased polarization is not only happening in America, but also throughout the world. The latest findings released last week show that shared facts are becoming non-existent.

The late New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan iconic political saying, “you are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts,” is no longer true. Everyone has their own facts, and trying to challenge them is like trying to communicate with someone speaking in another language.

The global report found that people’s trust in government and media remains at rock bottom—nobody believes a thing they say. However, people do report feeling more trusting of what they hear from their friends and families and even their boss. Only 35% of people report that they regularly get information from a source they disagree with and 70% are unwilling or hesitant to connect with someone who:

• Lives by different core values than me
• Believes different facts and trusts different sources than I do
• Wants to address societal problems differently than I do
• Has a different culture, background, or lifestyle than mine

If you haven’t spoken to anybody who disagrees with you today, go out and find someone and say hello.

WINNER: Indiana Football Deserves a Movie

According to Texan Mark Cuban, it’s time for “Hoosiers,” the classic film about Indiana basketball, to get a sequel. Cuban is an Indiana alum. Like most people who saw Indiana win the national championship in Miami on Monday night, he believes the next one will be even better.

“Now, it’s a movie,” Cuban said. “Now, we’re all a part of it.”

Against all odds, Indiana won the College Football Championship after having the worst record of any school in the country. It was an exciting championship game against the University of Miami Hurricanes, which also has a good comeback story. The best moments included Trump getting cheered by the crowd and seeing him with his granddaughter, Kai who has committed to the University of Miami golf team. It was also inspiring to see both quarterbacks kneel to pray before kickoff. Every detail capped off a terrific college football season.

LOSER: What is Wrong with the NFL?

If only we could settle into the NFL playoffs for the rest of the winter, but, unfortunately, the guys over there must have missed the college playoff game—the quarterbacks demonstrating their faith, Trump getting cheered, the military being honored.

The Super Bowl announced this week that Trump haters Green Day will be playing at the opening ceremony, joining “Bad Bunny,” who is the starring act at half-time. Green Day has revamped its signature anti-American song, “American Idiot,” to say “I’m not part of a MAGA agenda.” Meanwhile, Bad Bunny has said he’s afraid to perform in America because ICE might pick him up.

NFL, please give us a break.

We’re inching up on March Madness, and in college basketball, the men of the University of Houston, ranked No. 6, will play Texas Tech on Sunday if weather permits (which it probably won’t). The No. 4 ranked Texas Lady Longhorns are scheduled to play Arkansas on Monday.

Finally, just asking. Is Landman a Conservative TV Show? Watch my podcast with my TPPF colleagues Brian Phillips and Michaelanne Hurst here.

Stay glued to those weather alerts and 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 Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. President Donald Trump finally has a Peace Prize, Texas has a team in the Super Bowl hunt and it looks like Verizon is working again. Here’s who made the list:

WINNER: Gov. Greg Abbott’s $106 Million Campaign War Chest

In what the Dallas Morning News calls a “chest-thumping number,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott officially reported this week that he has a total of $106 million on hand for his re-election campaign this year—a figure that withers any efforts by Democrats to take over the Governor’s Mansion anytime soon. Note that Texas House Democrats bragged this week that they have raised a little over $2 million, mostly from folks around the country who supported their Capitol walkout last year. The Texas Democrat big dog, Beto O’Rourke, who has declined to run for anything again, also raised $2 million. Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico has raised over $6 million and his opponent, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, reportedly has close to that amount, although her progressive allies are currently criticizing her for taking money from the wrong people.

Which is not to say that it is all about the money—or even mostly about the money. Abbott’s broad support from the business community of Texas is a clear sign that people like the direction the state is going—job creation, productivity increases and, of course, Abbott’s lead role in passing school choice last year. The response from Texans is “let’s keep going.” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also broke campaign fundraising records reporting $38 million on hand for his re-election. Both Abbott and Patrick are running for fourth terms.

WINNER: Maria Machado Gives Her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump

After the Nobel Committee passed over President Trump in October, I reported that peace prizes are not usually awarded on merit—(see Barack Obama). But sometimes they are. Yesterday, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado gave her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump, expressing gratitude to Trump for taking out dictator Nicolas Maduro, and for his support of the resistance movement.

Bloomberg says that Norway is stunned by the news that Machado gave her prize to Trump after they specifically told her it was not transferable.

According to the news report, “a sense of disbelief gripped the Norwegian media and expert community”—don’t you love that Scandinavians have a “media and expert community?”

Janne Haaland Matlary, a professor with the University of Oslo and a former politician said, “That’s completely unheard of. It’s a total lack of respect for the award, on her part.” [It is] “meaningless” and “pathetic.”

Of course, Dr. Matlary has it backwards. “Meaningless and pathetic” are what the Nobel Peace Prize has become. Machado has made it relevant again.

LOSER: Immigration Wars in the Streets

We are accustomed to living in a world in which half the people have a viewpoint that is diametrically opposed to the other half. The immigration wars going on in the streets of Minneapolis now are a stark example.

There is no question that the progressive left had been looking for a “George Floyd” moment and they believe they got it when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed Renee Good on Jan. 7. Fully 80% of Americans say they have watched all the videos of the shootings and most everyone has an opinion.

A strong majority—over half—do not believe the ICE agent was justified in using deadly force against Good.

Meanwhile, the same poll shows that just over 60% of Republicans believe the shooting was justified. Almost all Democrats—over 90%— do not, which means that the country has settled into their camps on this issue, before there has been any investigation.

There are lots of arguments we would all like to hurl at the progressive anti-ICE marchers, starting with why they never seem to get mobilized in response to victims who have been killed by illegals, but it is also fair to ask for an investigation to determine why this woman was killed by a law enforcement official. Unfortunately, by the time the investigation gets moving, people will be even more dug in. Nobody is going to win the immigration war in the streets. Everybody is a loser.

LOSER: Verizon’s “Software Issue”

If we needed more evidence of how our fragile world is held together by our cellular service, it came on Wednesday when Verizon’s system went down for about 7 hours—people with Verizon phones couldn’t call out and nobody could call them.

Verizon couldn’t tell you how many of their customers lost service, only saying that 1.5 million people reached out to them to complain. I kept wondering how they could complain if their phone wasn’t working—which is why I suspect it was many more than 1.5 million.

Verizon called it a “software issue,” not a cyberattack, but the reports from other cell phone companies all seemed a little shaky. AT&T and T-Mobile said some customers reported problems to them, but they think it was only because they were trying to call Verizon people. Shouldn’t they know whether their systems are working or not?

Verizon is offering $20 credit to people who were affected, but speaking in solidarity with Verizon customers, I don’t think that will nearly cover the pain and suffering.

LOSER: Crockett Has a Bad Week

Woke apologies are pretty much over, everywhere except in Hollywood and among progressive Democrats, which is apparently why two comedians apologized to Texas U.S. Senate candidate Jasmine Crockett this week for telling voters they should not waste their money on contributions to her campaign.

Two guys nobody has heard of, Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, described by their compatriots as “white and white adjacent,” went on Instagram to say how sorry they were to have been insensitive, shortly after they were accused of attacking Crockett because she is a black woman.

In addition to the fundraising story noted above, Crockett has not had a great week. The first real poll in the U.S. Senate Democrat primaries from Emerson College shows State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin leads Crockett 47% to 38%. Pollsters say that Talarico is leading among white and Hispanic voters, while Crockett has about 80% of black voters.

LOSER: Bill & Hillary Clinton Duck Subpoena

Granted, nobody really expected former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to show up on Capitol Hill this week to answer questions about what they knew about Jeffrey Epstein.

The Clintons called the whole thing a “witch hunt,” a term frequently employed by the current president, and they insisted they’d already told everything they know.

Well, maybe, but I don’t believe we have gotten to the bottom of those silky silver shirts that the former President and Epstein are wearing in the most recent set of photographs that were released earlier this year.

House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Kentucky, is moving forward to hold them in contempt of Congress, but that probably won’t make much difference. It is already pretty clear they have nothing but contempt for Congress.

WINNER: More Evidence the Whole Trans Thing is Over

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court is finally considering whether boys should be allowed to participate in girls’ sports, one of my colleagues on the radio version of Winners & Losers actually made the Supreme Court losers this week because the justices wasted so much time asking the pro-trans lawyers dumb questions that all boiled down to what a woman is.

But cultural change is a long process, and if the reading of the tea leaves is correct and the Supremes are poised to block boys and men from playing in girls and women’s sports, this will be an important victory for our women, our values and culture and our country. Since all that is at stake, the Supreme Court was right to push the ACLU attorneys for the details of their case—they need to put their case on record, even if the Court’s liberal justices, aside from Ketanji Brown Jackson, did not seem inclined to join in.

Just in case the Supremes don’t act, Nevada’s governor is collecting signatures to put a Trans ban on the ballot in the Silver State. Meanwhile, in San Antonio, they are still fighting for rainbow sidewalks.

LOSER: Shake Shack Gaining Ground in Texas

News reports came out this week that another Shake Shack is going up in Leander, forcing speculation that the New York City-based hamburger joint is trying to oust Whataburger from the No. 1 burger spot in Texas.

Granted, there are only 30 Shake Shacks in Texas now, compared to about 800 Whataburgers, but Texans cannot be complacent. Now that red meat is back on the top of the food pyramid, we cannot let some New York ground beef restaurant spawned in the middle of Manhattan threaten Texas’ iconic Whataburger.

It is true some folks believe that Whataburger lost its claim to a Texas title after it sold controlling interest to a Chicago company. But Whataburger is still headquartered in my hometown of San Antonio, and they are bullish about maintaining their Texas brand—and we all should help them. You can’t just show up in the Lone Star State, throw up a hamburger stand and say you belong here.

WINNER: College Football Championship & Super Bowl Speculation

Indiana will play the University of Miami on Monday night for the College Football Championship. To review how we got here, pull up the last 15 weeks of Winners & Losers.It’s a great story. Kick-off is at 6:30 p.m., Texas time.

Meanwhile, Super Bowl Sunday is Feb. 8, but the Elite 8 is set, so it’s time to start official speculation. Let’s begin with the projection model at the New York Times which somehow calculates that the Seattle Seahawks have the highest percentage chance—23% of the eight teams still in the fight—to win the Super Bowl. The Times ranks the NFC higher than the AFC and give the Rams the second highest chance. They give the Texans a 10% chance to win—the Patriots and the Broncos do a little better in the AFC.

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 Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. The holidays are totally over now, and 2026 is up and running in earnest with big happenings all over the world—and in Texas. Here’s who made the list:

WINNER: Trump Takes Out Maduro

President Donald Trump’s capture and arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro reinforced several foundational American values and principals, but it was also another demonstration of a smaller, but important point in the world conversation—no other country has the military capability to do what we did in Caracas last weekend. Like the obliteration of Iran’s nuclear facilities, Maduro’s arrest and capture is a clear reminder to the world of America’s military supremacy. Even America’s biggest detractors (including the Democrats in Congress) should sleep better at night knowing that the good guys have all that power.

My TPPF colleague, Joshua Treviño, has made the most succinct statement on why Trump was right to take out Maduro on Jan. 3, so I am just going to quote him here from an op-ed published earlier this week in National Review:

Venezuela’s corrupt leaders got away with it for too long. They sent forth millions of their own citizenry to be trafficked, and they got away with it. They trafficked the drugs that killed and addicted millions of our neighbors and family, and they got away with it. They formed alliances with cartels dealing in goods and people, and they got away with it. They entered into the business of narco-terrorism, and they got away with it. They invited the worst enemies of the United States into the Americas — the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians — and they got away with it. They did all this for years, and they got away with it.

This impact of Maduro’s arrest will continue to play out in the coming days—and probably for years to come—and we’ll keep watching, but there is no doubt Trump made a winning move and executed it masterfully.

America’s thinking on Trump’s action in Venezuela has been shifting all week as people get more information. Early in the week most polls showed only about a third supported the president but new numbers put out by CBS News yesterday show about half of Americans now believe the president is doing the right thing. A strong majority of Republicans supported the action from the beginning.

The president also gets a thumbs up for withdrawing from 31 United Nations organizations and 35 other international groups that push left-wing ideologies and operate contrary to American interests. The U.S. sends billions to the United Nations which they spend on programs pushing climate change, DEI and other anti-American ideas. To paraphrase former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on another topic, “let them hate us on their own dime.”

LOSER: Gov. Tim Walz, the Minnesota Fraud

“Tim Walz and the Minnesota Fraud,” sounds a little like a rock band. Financial shakedowns are an old tradition in the Democrat party, dating at least from President Bill Clinton, whose administration used them extensively when doling out HUD money. However, our top loser of the week, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, seems to have lifted Democrat corruption to a whole new level.

Testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform this week revealed that the state auditor knew as early as 2009 that there was extensive fraud in the welfare system in the state of Minnesota, but Gov. Walz looked the other way and nothing was done. State workers continued to raise concerns, but they were ignored.

Happily, it has finally all come crashing down, and Gov. Walz announced this week that he will not run for reelection. Hopefully, losing his job won’t be the only consequence for his ignoring the fact that billions in federal funds earmarked to feed children during the pandemic, provide services for children with autism and other special needs, provide housing for poor people and treatment for drug addicts was instead given to fraudsters in the Somali community in Minnesota.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board provides a good summary of what has happened so far—including charges against 90 offenders—but the best political perspective on the fraud perpetrated by the Somali community in Minnesota came from Congressman Brendan Gill, R-Texas, in that same congressional hearing.

WINNER: Another Congressional Hearing Home Run for U.S. Rep. Brendan Gill, R-Texas

We all remember when Rep. Gill took down NPR CEO Katherine Maher by reading her tweets back to her after she denied ever saying such things as “white people all feel subconsciously superior.” This week, Rep. Gill brought the same chainsaw to the congressional hearing on welfare corruption in the Somali community in Minnesota, questioning local officials about some interesting statistics:

73% of Somali community Minnesotans are on Medicaid, compared to 18% in the general community.
81% of the Somali community are on welfare. After living 10 years in Minnesota that percentage drops to 73%.
54% of Somalians are on food stamps, compared to 7% in the general community.
Rep. Gill closed by asking the officials whether Somali voters back Democrats or Republicans. The answer of course, is that they overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. It’s all here in the video. Really makes you proud when you hear Chairman James Comer say, “the Chair recognizes Mr. Gill from Texas.”

LOSER: Home Ownership is a Weapon of White Supremacy

When I was in high school, there was a sign over the water fountain that read, “What Communists Believe.” The first and only item I remember on this list was “communists believe there is no God,” which was a deal-breaker for me and my other fellow teenagers at the time, so I didn’t pay attention to what came next.

Now the Democrat Socialist mayor of New York City has appointed Cea Weaver to serve as head of his Office of Tenant Advocacy, and she’s revealed some more details about what communists believe regarding private property.

In an August 2019 tweet, which Weaver recently deleted, she wrote “Private property including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.”

In 2021 Weaver said “…for centuries, we have really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good.” Her plan is to transition to a model of shared equity in order to think about property differently. She explained what she means by saying that, “white families and some POC [people of color] families who are homeowners… are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.”

Seeing Weaver’s words on the page doesn’t do them justice. Take a look at the video.

LOSER: Los Angeles Homeowners

In case you missed it, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass this week marked the one year anniversary of the devastating fires in the California Palisades by boasting that 12 houses have been rebuilt. Yes, Mayor Bass is claiming victory that 12 houses, out of the over 13,000 homes that were destroyed, have been rebuilt.

However, the mayor’s unbelievable effort at positive spin is not the worst thing about California’s inability to rebuild. In an echo of the old liberal cliché, “World ends—women and minorities suffer most,” the folks at UCLA are more concerned about whose homes are being rebuilt rather than the numbers. According to them, African-American homeowners made up a large share of the population of Altadena California, which was destroyed by the fires, and the professors at UCLA‘s Latino Policy and Politics Institute warn that those homes are likely to be the last to be rebuilt.

Since virtually nobody’s home is being rebuilt in California, you have to wonder why the folks at UCLA want to suggest that white people are cutting in line. The point is there is no line, just a brick wall of state government red tape.

Still, so far, at least black homeowners in Altadena don’t have to fear that some bureaucrat is suggesting they shouldn’t actually own a home because it is a “symbol of white supremacy, masquerading as wealth building public policy.”

Let’s pause for just a moment and give thanks that we live in a state where “wealth building public policies” are known to be a good thing.

LOSER: Beto O’Rourke Hasn’t Gone Away
Perhaps this is good news for Republicans, or maybe it doesn’t matter, but just so you know, Axios reported this week that Beto O’Rourke, who has been defeated by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott and pretty much every Democrat who ran for president in 2020 (except Kamala Harris), is now reportedly working behind the scenes to help Texas Democrats. You may have missed the fact that he’s been campaigning in red zones like Amarillo, Wichita Falls and Tyler, and a September University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll showed he had higher favorability ratings among Democrats than U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas. Not seeing a ripple effect here, but will keep you posted.

WINNER: Texas Supreme Court Ends Bar Association Hegemony

In another blow against the hegemony of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), the Texas Supreme Court formally announced this week that the American Bar Association (ABA) will no longer determine which Texas law students can sit for the Texas bar exam. Instead, the Texas Supreme Court, whose members are elected by the people of Texas, will now develop their own criteria to approve law schools.

The ABA has long required law schools to establish strong DEI programs that are now in conflict with new Texas laws that require student admissions and faculty hiring to be based entirely on merit. And although the ABA claims to be non-partisan, it has taken official positions in support of a number of issues, including restricting fossil fuel use and limiting the death penalty. To show how out of touch they are with Texans, the ABA’s strongly opposed requiring a photo ID in order to vote—a policy that is supported by 85% of Texans, including minorities and members of both parties.

The Texas Supreme Court is the first state to make this winning move, but news reports indicate that Florida and Ohio are also poised to cut ties with the ABA.

WINNER: Eat Real Food

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s edict this week that America “Eat Real Food” has implications that go far beyond the dinner plate. One of the chief ideological tenets of the progressive left—along with the notion that there are lots of different genders and there should be no enforcement at the border—is that what you eat says a great deal about who you are.

The left would classify eating steak as a sin, if they believed in sin, so the new food pyramid—with its big picture of red meat at the top—is likely to make lefties go crazy. There’s also a left-wing war on dairy, causing us to live in a world where people actually drink something called “oat milk” and demand gluten-free communion wafers.

The rest of us, who have known since the Atkins diet in the 1980s that protein, fruits and vegetables are the key to health and carbs are the road to oblivion, were not surprised by Kennedy’s policy change, although we know it will take more than a new pyramid graphic to make it happen. The phony flavors created by food companies—like the orange stuff on Cheetos—are as addictive as cocaine and will be hard for people, especially children, to kick.

My favorite recommendation is that kids be prohibited from having added sugar until they are 10 years old, although I have no idea how they will pull it off. Currently, the recommendation is age 2, and I doubt if many parents are following that guideline.

It is disappointing that RFK, Jr., did not include a recommended daily requirement for coffee and chocolate, which we all know are two essential nutrients that make life worth living—along with steak.

WINNER: A 1951 Treaty Gives America Lots of Rights in Greenland

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to Denmark this week to discuss U.S. interests in Greenland. That’s a good sign that both Rubio and Danish officials read the very interesting op-ed in the New York Times this week that pointed out that the United States signed a treaty with Denmark during the Cold War which gives us broad military access to Greenland. According to Mikel Runge Olsen, of the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen, “the U.S. has such a free hand in Greenland that it can pretty much do what it wants.”

The Danish op-ed writers say the agreement allows the U.S. to construct, install, maintain, and operate” military bases across Greenland, “house personnel” and “control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements, and operation of ships, aircraft, and waterborne craft.”

So perhaps we can just start constructing, installing and operating and see where it goes from there. Greenlanders are pretty dug in against allowing the United States to take over at this point, but once they get to know us, I’m betting they will like us. We can barbeque a bunch of steaks, schedule a few country music concerts and win them over in a week.

WINNER: The College Football Playoffs

Despite everything that went wrong and continues to go wrong in college football, we are coming to the end of a terrific season. Last weekend, college football fans watched as the so-called “big dogs,” Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia, became “former big dogs” and last night’s semi-final game between Ole Miss and Miami was one of the best of the season, with Miami coming out on top in the last minute.

The Red Raiders, the last Texas team in the CFP fight, were defeated by Oregon last week, but Tech has stepped up with a “get ready for next year” messaging strategy this week that has been dazzling, including getting a commit from almost a dozen new players from the portal, including Brendan Sorsby.

I married into an Oregon Duck family and am a longtime fan who’ll be watching the other semi-final game tonight to see if the Quack Attack can overcome the seemingly unstoppable Indiana Hoosiers on their second try. There’s a 3.5 point spread in Indiana’s favor. The game is at 6:30 p.m. and the winner will face the University of Miami on Jan. 19.

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.

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

If you were forwarded this email, you can sign up to receive it 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.

After a year of debating and finally passing a new curriculum for Texas public schools, it seems like the day after Christmas is a good time to re-visit this piece I wrote in 2024 about cultural illiteracy and the importance of understanding the role Christianity plays in the foundation of our western culture.

“Sermon on the Mound,” Shows Religious Illiteracy
August 15, 2024

One could only laugh at the news report by CBS 5 in Austin that cited “concern over a ‘Bible infused public school curriculum in Texas.’” According to the reporter, one of those “concerns” is that students would be taught about the “Sermon on the Mound.” Here’s what she wrote:

But criticism sparked when the teaching materials released, included biblical principles like the “Sermon on the Mound,” the life of Jesus Christ from birth to resurrection, and Bible prophecies.

Yep. Sermon on the Mound. Insert your own baseball joke here.

The obvious reference to the “Sermon on the Mount” could have been a typo—but if so, not only did the reporter miss it, the proofreaders also missed it. It was posted for almost a day before being corrected.

Did they miss it because they don’t know that the Sermon on the Mount is widely considered to be the most famous sermon ever delivered? If they didn’t know that, then they should understand that is precisely the reason the new public school curriculum they are “concerned” about is necessary.

To give the Sermon on the Mount an historical, non-religious cohort, it was the “I Have a Dream” speech of its time. Of course, Martin Luther King Jr. never would have written the “I have a Dream” speech if not for the Sermon on the Mount, because there never would have been a civil rights movement, or emancipation from slavery. In fact, there would never have been an America, at least as we know it today, and Martin Luther King Jr. would not have been named Martin Luther.

The basis for “all men are created equal” is rooted in “blessed are the poor in heart, blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful”—all from the Sermon on the Mount.

Religious illiteracy is not rare in America. Years ago, while working in a newsroom, I was asked to coach a junior reporter on a piece she was doing for Christmas. She wrote, “Like the old saying goes, it is better to give than to receive.”

I informed her it was not an “old saying,” that, in fact, Christ had said it. The reporter had no idea, apparently having never made a link between Christ and Christmas.

Like all illiteracy, cluelessness about the Bible reflects a lack of basic cultural knowledge akin to not knowing what the Declaration of Independence is and how it is related to the Magna Carta, and how the Magna Carta is related to the Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the primary building blocks of Western Civilization—changing our values from hierarchy, entitlement and barbarism to humility, forgiveness, and caring for others.

When the leadership at the Texas Education Agency followed the direction of the Texas Legislature with the passage of House Bill 1605, the goal wasn’t to convert students to Christianity in the classroom. Instead, the goal is to ensure that Texas students understand the values and principles that resulted in the exploration and settlement of North America, the founding of our country and the systems and laws that guide our country today.

It’s not just a story for Christians. Educated Jewish and Muslim Americans know the story of the Sermon on the Mount and how it fits into the American story—they also know how its history is related to the stories of their faith.

Teaching isn’t preaching, even if some of the stories come from a historical source like the Bible. Using another Bible story example, the Good Samaritan can help teach children how to be good neighbors to all. Discussing the Golden Rule and its origin reinforces the civilized way to treat one another. Going back to Martin Luther King Jr. again, he used the Bible to make the case for moral law in his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, a document that every Texas student is required to read and learn about.

A majority of Texans support adding the Bible to the historical sources used in the classroom. According to a new poll conducted by WPAi for TPPF, 64% of Texans support the inclusion of historical religious stories and examples into state provided curriculum, while only 33% are opposed. Further, 58% say the biblical stories provide students with a greater understanding of the development of Western civilization, versus just 25% who say it has the potential for religious indoctrination.

Of course, biblical illiteracy is not the only problem that has come up in the debate over Texas’ new public school curriculum. In the CBS 5 news report, a distinguished political science professor from Rice University snidely insisted that the curriculum probably violates the “separation clause” of the Constitution.

There is, of course, no “separation clause” in the Constitution. What the Constitution bans is an official, government supported church. Literate Texas students should know that too.

The reporter who wrote “Sermon on the Mound” in a news report demonstrates precisely why a curriculum for Texas public schools should include all the historical resources, including the Bible, that contribute to our country’s identity. It is one of the things needed to understand what it means to be an American. It’s all connected. It’s impossible to understand the importance of Juneteenth, for example, without understanding the significance of the message of the Sermon on the Mount—that’s Mount, not Mound.

May your Christmas season continue to be merry and bright.

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

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

If you were forwarded this email, you can sign up to receive it 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.

Throughout 2025, I joined the Cardle & Woolley Show every Friday morning on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Starting with the inauguration of President Donald Trump’s second term and an epic session of the Texas Legislature, 2025 has been an epic year, changing the course of history in so many ways, for good and for ill. To reflect a bit, I pulled the best and the worst happenings from this year’s Winners & Losers lists:  

WINNER: The Best of 2025—Trump Should Get the Nobel Peace Prize

June 27 — American presidents have been trying to rein in the theocracy in Iran for the last 40 years, using all kinds of threats, sanctions, sticks and carrots in an effort to get the Iranians to stop developing a nuclear weapon. President Trump finally said, “Times up,” when it was clear Iran had no intention of backing down. In a massive display of American might—those B-2 bombers had never been in battle before—he blasted their program out of existence, ensuring that the largest state sponsor of terrorism no longer has the ability to develop a nuclear bomb.

He did so while expressing no malice toward Iran—urging Iranians to focus on trade and building their economy instead of their jihad against Jews. At the same time, he was unequivocal that the United States will never abandon our commitment to Israel.

Trump’s F-Bomb statement—that Iran and Israel had been fighting so hard for so long that they don’t know what the f*** they are doing”—not only succinctly describes how most of the world views the Middle East, it also made it crystal clear that he had no intention of joining that fight.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Trump’s action “a shot in the arm for American credibility.” Rice served under George W. Bush, one of Trump’s harshest critics. The shift Rice saw in American credibility was immediately apparent in the NATO Summit that week, where every country in Europe except Spain finally agreed to substantially increase what they pay for their defense, no longer forcing the U.S. to cover most of the costs. This was a goal Trump set during his first term, but no one believed he had any hope of succeeding. Now he has.  

What happened to Iran sends a strong message to Russia and China about America’s strength and the principles that make up the Trump doctrine. “Kill all the Jews” can’t be anyone’s national mission statement, but his simple pleas to Iranian leaders to open some markets, make some money and “give peace a chance” has a whole new meaning in our current times.

Granted, the ceasefire may not hold, and Trump’s additional effort to end the fighting in Gaza may not be successful, but no world leader has pushed for world peace harder than Trump—in the Middle East, in Ukraine, in Asia. His name has repeatedly been floated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Whether he receives it has nothing to do with merit, of course, like getting all A’s at Harvard.

President Barack Obama received the Peace Prize in 2009, but it’s not exactly clear why. According to the Nobel Committee’s press release, Obama wanted to turn over international negotiations to the United Nations and embrace the fight against climate change—plus he was a big star who gave people hope. Trump’s record in just the last few months outshines that, but as I said, peace prizes aren’t awarded on merit.

LOSER: The Worst Event of 2025–Losing Charlie Kirk

September 12 — So much has been said and will continue to be said about the amazing Charlie Kirk: He was a brilliant thinker, inspired leader, husband, father, man of faith who changed the political landscape in America. I met Charlie after hearing him speak at a large conservative event a number of years ago—I don’t remember which one.

I didn’t take him seriously at the time, after he stated his mission was to win over younger voters. I have been in and around politics for decades, and every election cycle or two somebody rises up and professes they will win the next election by getting out the youth vote. It had never worked before.

Charlie Kirk changed that, wading onto college campuses across the country, and talking to students about everything from Marxism to immigration to Native American health care to sex before marriage—whatever they wanted to debate with him. He believed that in order to save the greatest country in the world, it’s critical to talk with people who disagree with you. He said:

“…when people stop talking, really bad stuff starts. When marriages stop talking, divorce happens. When civilizations stop talking, civil war ensues. When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that group. . . . What we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have a reasonable disagreement, where violence is not an option.”

Charlie was an evangelical Christian who recently told the Catholic News Service that if he died, he wanted to be remembered for acting with the courage of his faith. This moved me to go back and re-listen to his appearance on comedian Bill Maher’s podcast “Club Random,” earlier this year.

Maher is the most prominent and outspoken atheist of our time. He not only doesn’t believe in God, he believes religion is a malevolent force in our culture. The title of his documentary film, “Religulous” combines the words religion and ridiculous, and it’s meant to expose what he sees as the absurdity of faith.

But like Charlie, Maher believes dialogue and disagreement are critical. “Everybody is a monster until you talk with them,” Maher says.

Charlie sat down with him in April. You can listen to their conversation here. In the opening minutes, Maher casually comments on the security people Charlie brought with him, asking “do you need security?” Knowing what we know now, the exchange is chilling.

Wall Street Journal columnist Kim Strassel notes that what usually happens in America after heart-breaking political violence like this is the country is on good behavior for a week or so before politicians on both sides go back to stoking up their supporters, insisting that their political opponents will bring tyranny and an end to civilization as we know it. The suspect in the murder apparently believed killing Charlie was fighting fascism. Ironically, when a student once accused Charlie of being a fascist to his face, Charlie asked him to “name one fascist thing about me.” The student not only didn’t know what Charlie stood for, he also didn’t really know what fascism was.

Charlie believed talking to people who disagree with you is the only path to real change. He bet his life on it.

WINNER: Gender is Over, Sex is Back

January 25 — Trump’s Executive Order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” officially ended the battle for “biological truth” that has been going on for almost a decade. Skirmishes continue all over the country, but in fact, this one is done.

Later in the year, in a 6 to 3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the right of Tennessee to bar parents from giving their children puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and allowing them to undergo unneeded mastectomies and even castrations in an effort to change their sex. Hopefully, this will bring the destructive mutilation called “gender affirming care” to an end.

LOSER: Biden Cover-Up Still on Big Loser List

May 20 — After Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, “Original Sin,” made a big splash, I assumed the issue of former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline in office would finally rotate off Winners and Losers. Surely, that horse has been sufficiently beaten. But then the tapes of Biden’s deposition by Special Counsel Robert Hur were released and America could actually hear just how disoriented the former president was. His sense of time, his focus, his grasp on reality—all demonstrated that Hur had been right when he said that although Biden had broken the law regarding classified documents, he was so feeble and forgetful that no jury would convict him.

The Hur tapes further validated the information in Tapper’s book about how the White House staff misled the public about Biden’s competence. The Joe Biden revealed on those tapes was the same Joe Biden who his advisors said was sharp as a tack.

Finally, it wasn’t just conservatives who were asking, “Who was running the country?”

Then, just before that question could be seriously considered, Biden’s spokespeople announced that the former president has “Stage 4 prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones.”

That is terrible news for the former president and his family and virtually everyone, including President Trump and Biden’s harshest critics in conservative media, have profusely and repeatedly expressed their concerns and offered their prayers.

Unfortunately for the Biden family, after the Tapper book and the Hur tapes, they are no longer trusted by anyone, so this awful news doesn’t just evoke sympathy, it raises more questions: Men his age are routinely screened for prostate cancer. If Biden wasn’t, why not?

Biden said he had cancer in 2022, but his staff said he misspoke. Did he? Did the family know Biden had cancer and not tell the country? Did Biden know he had cancer when he was insisting that he would run for re-election again? Did Jill Biden and Hunter know? Did his advisors, the so-called “Politburo” who were apparently making all the presidential decisions, know? Or was Biden somehow unlucky enough to have a personal physician who missed a crucial point on the former president’s regular check-up? Texas Sen. John Cornyn has asked DOJ to investigate “potential violations of federal law regarding representations made to the general public about the president’s health.

Going forward, historians will undoubtedly debate whether the Biden cover-up was just a sequence of bad decisions made expediently, or if voters had unknowingly put a Richard III in the Oval Office where he and his advisors would do whatever it took to keep the White House.

In the short term, a good question for the media to ponder is how did the former president so completely destroy the public’s trust that even a tragic cancer diagnosis raises justified suspicion?

WINNER: Taxpayers No Longer Must Fund NPR and PBS

July 18 — Not sure why this was even debatable, but last summer, 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.

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 summed it up perfectly: “We believe that you all can hate us on your own dime.”

LOSER: No Kings March Proves There Are No Kings

June 19 — A fake tweet was posted by somebody suggesting that Trump thanked all the No Kings protestors for making sure that no king took his place. He happily reported he is still the president.

Too bad it was fake, because, as a USA Today column pointed out, the nationwide marches prove the point that democracy is alive and well in America. We don’t know how much the American Federation of Teachers spent to help promote the No Kings events, but they didn’t get much for their money. We got one more round of the usual low-grade street riots in Los Angeles, Seattle and New York, but it was mostly a big nothing burger. Meanwhile, the president’s parade in Washington, D.C., celebrating the 250^th anniversary of the U.S. Army, went off without a hitch. It got great reviews, even from critics at left-wing MSNBC who were shocked that there was no “dark, malevolent energy.”

LOSER: Democrats and the Shutdown War

November 14 — It was great seeing the headline in the Washington Post proclaiming the Democrats had lost the shutdown battle after that newspaper spent 40 days proclaiming that the blue team was winning. Granted, the liberals at the WaPo predict that Republicans will ultimately lose on the health care issue, and maybe they will, but, in fact, nobody ever really understood what the Democrats were trying to prove.  

After almost six weeks of shutdown, at a cost estimate of anywhere between $7 billion and $15 billion a week, eight Democrat senators listened to the demands of the American people to bring the shutdown to an end and broke the logjam. The majority of Democrat lawmakers are outraged at the defection of the eight and, as they try to regroup, most seem to think all their problems will be solved if they get rid of their minority leader, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, who couldn’t hold his caucus together and refused to endorse New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

They have no idea why they lost.  

LOSERS: Faculty Councils at Texas Universities

September 5 — Several of Texas’ flagship universities announced this week that they are taking steps to disband faculty senates and councils that have insisted for years that they, not college presidents or boards of regents, are in charge of our taxpayer-funded universities.

Senate Bill 37, authored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe and Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano, stops all that and returns control of the campus and the curriculum to the Boards of Regents, appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, who is elected by the people of Texas.

At the University of Texas at Austin and the University of North Texas, there are four liberals for every conservative—numbers which create a culture more hospitable to progressive and DEI-infused ideology than the values of free speech and open inquiry. When it comes to reforming higher education, Texas has created the model that President Trump and the rest of the country are following. Dynamic new leadership at the state’s flagship universities is making an enormous difference. Ending the hegemony of so-called “faculty governance” groups is one big key to change.

WINNER: A Great Year of College Football in Texas

Despite the continued threats to college football from the machinations of NIL and the struggle between those who want to save intercollegiate competition and those who want to create an NFL feeder league, 2025 was a great year in college football with three Texas flagships ending up in the Top 15.

The No. 4-ranked Red Raiders of Texas Tech are the Big 12 Champions! They will play the winner of the Oregon vs. James Madison University game in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day. No. 7-ranked Texas A&M had an undefeated season, until the last game when the University of Texas knocked them out of the SEC championship battle, with a 27 to 17 victory. The Aggies are still in the CFP, of course, and will play Miami tomorrow night in the first round.

The Texas Longhorns, ranked No. 14, will play Michigan in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Please continue to cheer on Savings College Sports in 2026. GameDay’s Pat McAfee and Texas Tech Board of Regents Chair Cody Campbell lay it all out here.

Meanwhile, Gig ‘em, Wreck ‘em, Hook ‘em.

Have a blessed Christmas.

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 Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Amid the joys of this holy season and the machinations of the College Football Playoff bracket, here’s the list for this week:

WINNER: Paying Attention to History

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles announced this week that President Donald Trump is going to be out campaigning like it was 2024. The president is also taking steps to regain the ground he has lost over the past few months. While you won’t hear it on Fox News, the president’s polling numbers are definitely down and any conservative pundit who tries to explain it away simply isn’t paying attention.

Conservatives often dismiss polling data because we are right on the issues and the Democrats and progressives are so very wrong, but being right isn’t always enough. We are in a fight of light over darkness—and to win, we cannot forget that.

In August, I voiced concerns about those who were saying that the progressive Democrat Party had been destroyed and conservatives would dominate for the next decade—even millennia. I wish that were true, but history tells us it isn’t. Here’s the snippet I wrote this summer that bears repeating today:

Unfortunately, the persistent cluelessness of Democrats has caused too many conservatives to prematurely pronounce them dead and even on the verge of extinction. But political terrain in America shifts quickly, and Democrats have been here before.

In 1972, Republicans defeated left-winger George McGovern in the biggest Republican landslide in history, but just four years later, a guy nobody had ever heard of, Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter, took the White House back for the Democrats. It was a sweet victory for the blue team, but then Ronald Reagan took Carter out after just one term and in 1988, when Reagan ran for re-election, he won 49 states.

Times were as bad for Democrats back then as they are now. They didn’t really have a leader. All their big guns stood down. Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (father of losing NYC mayoral candidate Andrew) was viewed as the Democrats’ strongest candidate, but he was afraid to run against George H.W. Bush.

However, there was this governor from the poor and tiny state of Arkansas whose only claim to fame was a disastrous speech delivered at the Democratic National Convention (his only applause line was “in conclusion”), who thought he could beat Bush. Clinton threw his hat in the ring and we know what happened from there.

It is dangerous to forget history.

Democrats may seem clueless right now, but they are not dead. Politics turns on a dime. Conservatives should remember 1972, 1976, 1992, and 2008. If we don’t pay attention, the Democrats will make the country pay some other way.

Just saying. Meanwhile, look who else made the Winners List this week:

WINNER: Jasmine Crockett Eight Points Up

I was wrong last week when I predicted that U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, would ultimately balk on a U.S. Senate run. She announced on Monday that she is definitely in, and the first public poll released this week conducted by Texas Southern University shows her up eight points over state Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock. Meanwhile, Colin Allred, who ran against Sen. Ted Cruz last time, and had been the frontrunner in the Democrat Senate primary race for a while, dropped out in the face of a Crockett candidacy.

According to the poll, African Americans are solidly behind Crockett, while Hispanics and Anglos are with Talarico. It is a long time until next March’s primary and even longer until the November election—where it is unlikely either one of them can defeat whomever the Republicans choose to run for the seat. But for now, the always hateful and frequently foul-mouthed Crockett is the face of the Democrat party in Texas—and that is a good thing for conservatives. Let’s hope she launches a speaking tour all over the state making fun of Gov. Greg Abbott for being in a wheel chair and talking about the need for open borders to bring more workers so black people won’t have to pick cotton.

WINNER: Amnesty International Finally Reports Hamas Oct. 7 Crimes

Amnesty International leans heavily left, but this week it finally reported that the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel targeted civilians and killed over a thousand people. Amnesty International also confirmed that the hundreds who were captured by Hamas were subjected to physical torture and sexual assault and violence.

This is certainly not news, but it is important since there are so many young Americans on college campuses who continue to believe that the attack didn’t happen, or if it did, it was somehow justified. The Amnesty International report echoes similar findings by the United Nations, making it harder for left-wingers in America to ignore.

LOSER: President Trump Moves to Legalize Pot

It probably should be no surprise that President Trump is said to be moving toward taking steps to legalize marijuana. He’s got his hand on the pulse of the country and 64% of Americans support legalizing pot (although that’s down from 70% in 2023).

As a boomer who lived through the golden age of marijuana—back when it was mild and cheap—it is hard to see how this is a good idea. The links to marijuana psychosis are terrifying, and too often link to mass shooters. Plus, in a time where so many young people are already wandering in the wilderness, why would we want to take steps to expand the use of a drug that reduces ambition and focus, and increases aimlessness?

There are many heroes who have been fighting for years against legalizing pot in Texas including Dr. Matt Poling, from College Station. Take a look at what he says here.

LOSER: Indigenous Peoples Scam

It looks like a Small Business Administration program designed to help “small disadvantaged businesses” is actually a scam that has resulted in billions in fraud and bribes to native tribes and other “disadvantaged groups” that partner with non-natives to do business. This report in Tribal Business News on the recent Senate hearing provides the long time line and scope of the scam. Here’s a telling quote from the Daily Wire report on the hearing:

“…there are skyscrapers down the street in Tyson’s Corner, [Virginia] defense contractors working on advanced weapons that don’t have to bid competitively for contracts because we say they’re Alaskan Native corporations. Every one of us in this room knows there are not Native Alaskans in those buildings … The scandal isn’t that there have been a few examples of abuse. The scandal is that it’s hard to find one that isn’t.” 

LOSER: Mid-Cycle Redistricting Map Wars

At this point it looks like the Trump strategy to increase GOP numbers in the U.S. House before next year’s mid-term elections appears to have fizzled after the state senate in Indiana voted against a proposed redistricting map last night. Even though Texas’ map was upheld in court last week, California’s map will likely also be upheld—making those five seats a wash for Democrats and Republicans. Looking at the current tally, Republicans could come out one seat ahead when all the smoke clears. That seems like a lot of squeezing for very little juice.

WINNER: Texas Economy Remains Strong

In some final data, this week’s reports show Texas sales tax receipts are up 5.4% over last year, the Texas oil and gas industry paid $27 billion in state taxes and royalties in 2025 and the Texas Workforce Commission reported the state has added 168,000 jobs this year. Winding down 2025 in the Lone Star State, that’s a lot of merry and bright.

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 Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Not sure why there are so many more winners than losers this week, but here’s who made the list.

WINNER: Texas Congressional District Map Stands

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Texas new congressional map can stay in place for next year’s election. My favorite line from the ruling is the conservative majorities’ assertion that the “lower court had failed to presume legislative good faith.” I think many people have forgotten that there is any such thing as “legislative good faith”—so great to see it affirmed.

The Supremes also charged that opponents of the map had presented circumstantial evidence and that it was too close to the election (the filing deadline is on Monday). The high court said, “the District Court improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections.”

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch wrote that it was clear that Texas lawmakers had drawn lines based on partisanship—whether voters were likely Democrats or Republicans—not race, which made the map legal. This is a big win for Texas Republicans. It will add five new Texas house seats and energize Republicans across the state who have been engaged in congressional campaigns for months.

California’s new map that adds five new Democrat-leaning House seats will have to meet the same challenge, proving partisanship, not racial gerrymandering. Odds seem good that will happen, but you never know.

WINNER: Trump Ends Biden’s Green Fuel Mandates

In a great move for Texas and the world this week, President Donald Trump announced that he is ending Joe Biden’s fuel economy and emission regulations for new cars and light trucks. Biden had pronounced that they’d all have to get 50.1 miles to the gallon by 2031. Trump rolled that back to 34.5.

This move will likely make cars cheaper—we saw just last week in California that they have decided that electric vehicles are not really financially feasible. Biden’s regulations have been costing both jobs and money, while Trump has always seen that policies that hamstring fossil fuels have crippling side effects that sap our economic strength and even our national security. And, as we know in Texas, fossil fuels are critical when it comes to reliability.

WINNER: Trump Pardons U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar

President Donald Trump issued a “full and unconditional pardon” this week of Laredo Congressman Henry Cuellar. Cuellar, a Democrat, was the first Texas Secretary of State to serve under former Gov. Rick Perry, who appointed him in 2001. He was first elected to Congress in 2005—so he’s been there 20 years.

Trump stated that the feds went after Cuellar when he broke with his party regarding their open border policies, instead supporting what Trump had done to close the border. Nobody doubts Cuellar when he said the people in his district he agreed with him. Cuellar is one of the few remaining moderate Democrats, and says he intends to run for re-election next year.

WINNER: Creighton Takes Charge at Texas Tech

Brandon Creighton, the new Chancellor at Texas Tech, is not the first Texas conservative to call out the ideological indoctrination that has contaminated the culture on most university campuses, including in Texas, but, working alongside Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, he is the first person to take steps to eradicate it.

Creighton wrote legislation that empowers regents to review the curriculum. And this week, he provided the guidelines for that process. For starters, no one will be taught that there are more than two genders.

Next, no one will be taught that one race is inherently superior to another. Do they do that? Absolutely. Theories of “white supremacy,” and “colonization” appear in dozens of courses, teaching that students of one race are guilty of crimes and other races are not.

The same is true of the notion that an “individual, by virtue of race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, consciously or unconsciously.” Does that happen? You bet it does. Ever hear anyone say, “Check your white privilege at the door”? That’s why prohibiting the teaching that moral character is determined by race and that individuals bear responsibility or guilt for actions of others of the same race.

Creighton’s memo also said no person can be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment because of race or sex. Isn’t that already illegal? Yes, but just last year Texas A&M had to end its involvement in a higher ed program that did not allow white or Asian students to apply.

Finally, Creighton’s directive notes that students cannot be taught that “meritocracy or a strong work ethic are racist, sexist, or constructs of oppression.” If you are thinking, who thought they were, the answer is basically every DEI professor and text book writer in the country. Michael Sandel, at Harvard, wrote a book called “The Tyranny of Merit.” DEI programs have identified an “emphasis on hard work” as racist, as well as time schedules and punctuality requirements.

Creighton has been fearless in tackling this massive ideological misinformation campaign, and his latest move is one more step in returning our universities to places of open inquiry and freedom of thought.

WINNER: Trump Puts Media on the Record

I concluded a while ago that fighting media bias is tilting at windmills. Even when you catch the media red-handed, they never confess, they never apologize, they never correct and, most importantly, they never change.

Just this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant slammed down New York Times’ writer Andrew Ross Sorkin, who questioned him about a New York Times report that Trump was slowing down—working shorter hours, holding fewer meetings. Hours after the New York Times story was released, the White House provided logs showing that Trump routinely works 12 hour days, in addition to outside political activities.

Bessant pointed out that the New York Times was deeply involved in the repeated failure to report Joe Biden’s cognitive decline—which he called “one of the greatest scandals of our times.”

It was fun to watch Bessant take down Sorkin, but it is unlikely to make any difference. Still, the Trump White House website, Misleading.Bias.Exposed, is a good counter to the avalanche of biased news coverage.

Speaking of, it’s time for Politifact’s annual “Lie of the Year” contest where they allow their readers to vote on what they deem to be the biggest untruths of the last 12 months. This year voters can choose from six alleged “lies” by President Trump, five alleged lies by other conservatives, versus one alleged lie each from J.B. Pritzger and Hakeem Jeffries—along with internet story that Trump was dead.

LOSER: Jasmine Crockett’s Potential Senate Run?

A poll from the left-leaning Change Research reported this week that half of Democrats say they definitely would not vote for U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, who is suggesting that she will announce on Monday that she is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. John Cornyn.

Crockett, who represents a big chunk of Dallas in Congress, gained notoriety after referring to Gov. Greg Abbott as “Governor Hot Wheels,” and explaining that she supports open borders because black people are done picking cotton—meaning that illegal immigrants are needed to work in America’s fields.

Crockett has the highest name ID of any Democrat in the poll, but 40 percent of Democrats view her negatively, which can give us all some hope that Texas Democrats aren’t totally clueless. Crockett said this week that she is “closer to yes than to no” when it comes to running for the statewide job, and told reporters today said she was calling others who are already in the race.

It would be absolutely terrific for conservatives if Crockett was at the top of the Democrat ticket in Texas running for the U.S. Senate—she is a gift that keeps on giving. Every time she opens her mouth, she demonstrates the combination of irrationality and hatefulness that has become the progressive Democrat brand. Still, I will not be surprised if she ultimately walks away. Even if she wins the Democrat nomination she is unlikely to win the seat. Even this lefty poll shows Democrats 10 points behind. I think it’s a stunt by Crockett to get attention—but I would love to be wrong.

WINNER: San Antonio Spur Victor Wembanyama Makes Forbes ‘30 Under 30’

It is a victory for all of Texas that the 7’4” San Antonio Spur Victor Wembanyama has been named to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list in the sports category, not just because he was “Rookie of the Year” and then NBA defensive player of the year, but because of everything else he is doing to expand the basketball fan base. The Spurs don’t win as much as they used to, but Wemby feels like the championship Spurs used to feel—international, innovative and dedicated to the community. Whenever Wemby is playing, the game gets better—and now more people will be watching.

WINNER: Tech Plays for Big 12 Title

Texas Tech Red Raiders will take on BYU tomorrow in Arlington for the Big 12 Championship. Tech beat BYU last month in Lubbock in what some viewed as an upset, and the Raiders are the favorite to win tomorrow—but it won’t be easy. BYU will be looking for revenge. GUNS UP!

Have a great weekend.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. While the congressional map wars continue and would-be candidates wait for the smoke to clear, here’s who made the list:

WINNER: Gov. Greg Abbott Goes After Muslim Extremists in Texas

After recent events in Michigan—and England, Gov. Greg Abbott continues to ramp up his efforts to ensure that Sharia Law gains no foothold in the Lone Star State. This week, the governor declared the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations, prohibiting them from buying land. Yesterday, Abbott ordered the DPS to investigate both groups. The Muslim Brotherhood has spawned many organizations, including Hamas, and CAIR often serves as an apologist voice for Muslim violence, including following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. CAIR insists it is a civil rights organization, and it is suing Abbott for going after them, but comments by its leadership (including referring to Zionist groups as “enemies”) disproves that characterization.

Here at TPPF, we noticed that CAIR recently testified against the new comprehensive social studies curriculum. It prefers the vague and unstructured standards that are currently in place that have allowed misinformation and ideology to be leaked into what K-12 students study. Texans can be thankful that Abbott is making it clear we’re having none of that in Texas.

WINNER: TrumpRX & Jelly Roll

A great winner leading up to Thanksgiving is the news this week that country music star Jelly Roll has lost 200 pounds. The formerly very fat guy—he once weighed over 500 pounds – is another good sign that health is in and the whole “body positivity” propaganda movement, which declared that obesity is just a lifestyle choice, is over.

Much of this is due to the GLP-1 medications including Ozempic and Wegovy, which were designed to treat diabetes, but turned out to be the most effective weight loss drug in history so far.

The only problem is that the drugs are very expensive and so far, lots of the people showing big weight loss are movie stars and celebrities who can afford a medication that can cost over a thousand dollars a month—and is not usually covered by insurance.

President Trump announced last week that he intends to change all that. He calls it TrumpRX, and it will lower the prices of the drugs so that regular fat people can more easily afford them. Ozempic, the most expensive, would drop from $1350 a month to $350 a month in his plan—still pricey, but manageable. Currently, the medication is administered through shots, but oral versions are being developed, and Trump hopes to provide the initial doses at $150 a month.

The U.S. has more obese people than any other country in the world—74% of the country is overweight. If President Trump can pull this off, it could be more transformational than anything he’s done so far. Granted, world peace and securing the border are enormously important, but this is so much closer to home. Three out of four people are overweight, and Trump has a plan that could change that.

If he can pull this off, depending on the time line, he probably doesn’t need to worry about the mid-terms, and certainly can make sure Republicans keep the White House and everything else in 2028. Can’t you see a giant red graph chart on the White House lawn showing trillions of pounds lost? Make America Thin Again!

Winner: A College Degree Still Matters

A new report by Axios this week suggests that maybe we don’t know as much as we think we know. Texas is leading the way in bringing back campuses that that support open inquiry and debate. But nobody likes what is going on in higher education today, and we often hear that a college degree doesn’t matter much anymore.

Currently, only 20% of Republicans say a college degree is “very important,” compared to 43% of Democrats. Another 40% of Republicans say college is “fairly important,” but most people have had it with the astronomical costs, the woke culture and degree programs that don’t seem to line up with job opportunities.

But newly released census data reported by Axios and others shows that college graduates who are now 25 or older earn more than twice as much as their counterparts who are only high school graduates. According to the data, the median income of someone with at least a bachelor’s degree is $132,700, while a high school grad median income is $58,410.

Earnings for college-led households rose 6% over the past two decades, compared with a 3% increase for high school graduates.

That’s something to ponder as Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced this week that she is ready to shut down the U.S. Dept. of Education. She says that if the recent government shutdown proved one thing, it was that the bureaucrats at the Department of Education aren’t needed. Six weeks out, and nobody missed them.

LOSER: The Latest Jasmine Crockett Update

For those who are keeping a list, which includes me, the really dumb thing that U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas did this week was announce that her team had pulled together a more complete list of people who had taken campaign contributions from the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including Mitt Romney, George Bush and the National Republican Campaign Committee. That’s not true, of course. It turns out Crockett and her crackerjack team did not consider that there might be more than one Jeffrey Epstein in America. In fact, National Review found over 300 in a quick search including almost a hundred in New York alone. Crockett’s team also neglected to check contribution dates, since several of her big expose’s charged Epstein, the sex offender, with donating to Republicans after he was dead. I often cringe when President Trump describes one of his enemies as being a “low-IQ individual,” but when he says it about Crockett, he clearly has a point.

WINNER: Walking Back EVs

California continues to deny a Politico report from a couple of weeks ago that they are pulling back on their plan to phase out gasoline powered cars by 2035. President Trump is trying to overturn the policy, but, while Newsom and his crew continue to talk smack about the White House effort, Axios is reporting that state regulators realize that their requirement that all cars be electric by 2035—which is now 9 years away—is not realistic or even practical.

California has been the spear carrier in banning gas-powered cars, and other blue states were looking for it to lead, but the fact is that electric cars aren’t affordable, particularly without the tax incentives to buy them, and there aren’t enough charging stations. Recall that Biden appropriated $7.5 billion to build hundreds of them across the country, but couldn’t manage to even construct one.

In more good news for our fossil fuel producing state, the VA announced this week that they are pulling the plug (get it?) on the $77 million Biden had allocated to put charging stations on military bases.

WINNER: Texas UIL Blocking Foreign Student Recruitment

While the whole country continues to look for ways to unravel what is happening to college football—and all college sports (see former college athlete and TPPF Board Member Cody Campbell’s analysis here), it turns out that the University Interscholastic League Legislative Council is taking steps to block foreign exchange students from participating in high school varsity sports in Texas.

One coach noted that rules regulating American kids from going from one school to another to play sports are very strict, but foreign students are now marketing themselves on social media, catching the eyes of coaches and being recruited to enter the country as exchange students to play.

Under the proposed rules change, foreign exchange students will still be allowed to play in sports—they just won’t be able to participate on varsity teams. The rule still has to be approved by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath.

WINNER: Texas Emergency People

Former President Joe Biden did many dumb things, but one of the dumbest was when he accused Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of not calling him back about disaster aid following Hurricane Beryl in 2024. Trying to make some kind of weird political point, Biden accused Patrick, who was acting governor at the time, of being unreachable even though he was in the state’s Emergency Operations Center for days, working alongside Biden’s federal FEMA employees.

The roar back from the Lt. Governor resulted in an unprecedented editorial from the Houston Chronicle where they admitting they had been wrong to believe Biden, and saying that Patrick was right and Texas is way ahead of FEMA. In addition to Lt. Gov. Patrick, the Chronicle praised the longtime director of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, Nim Kidd.

So it is not surprising that the Trump administration is now considering moving FEMA to Texas, at least partly because Nim Kidd turned down the FEMA job right after Trump was re-elected because he didn’t want to leave the Lone Star State. Nobody does. We’ll see what happens.

Gig’em, Wreck ‘em, Hook ‘em

In what may have been the best game anywhere this year (or any year), the maroon tribe over at Texas A&M managed to pull off the largest comeback victory in Aggie history, after being down 27 points to South Carolina at halftime. The Aggies are now 10-0 for the season, No. 1 in the SEC and at No. 3 in the national rankings.

Things didn’t go so well for the Longhorns last week, when another piece of the dream died. Even though the betting lines all favored Georgia over Texas going into the game, fundamentalist orange bloods—and many who are orange blood adjacent—believed that if the stars were aligned, the Longhorns could come out on top. But, of course, the stars were out of whack and Texas dropped 7 points, to No. 17 in the national rankings

Up in Lubbock, the Red Raiders of Texas Tech are No. 1 in the Big 12 and they share No. 6 in the national rankings with my beloved Oregon Ducks. Tech easily demolished Central Florida on Saturday after their big College Game Day win against BYU the week before.

Texas A&M will take on the unranked bulldogs of Samford (not a typo) University in Alabama on Saturday at 11 a.m. in College Station while Texas plays Arkansas in Austin at 2:30 p.m. Texas Tech isn’t playing this weekend.

WINNERS & LOSERS will be off next week for Thanksgiving, but in case you missed it, I want to share my story of what happened in the Massachusetts Bay that first Thanksgiving—complete with the socialism and the number of Indians that were actually at the big dinner.

According to [William] Bradford, not long after the Pilgrims landed in 1620, they found that the collectivity they had instituted in the colony bred “confusion and discontent and retard[ed] much employment” because men did not want to work without pay for other men’s families. And so, a little more than a year after the first Thanksgiving, they decided to divide up the land they had so that everybody had a share and could grow what they wanted. Productivity increased, and the colony began to prosper, attracting more and more immigrants and ushering in the great migration from England.

Read the rest of the article 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.

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Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Now that the shutdown is finally over, three Texas football teams are in the Top 10 and the Northern Lights are blasting out all over the Lone Star State, here’s who made the list:  

LOSERS: How Did the Democrats Lose the Shutdown War?

It was great seeing the headline in the Washington Post proclaiming the Democrats had lost the shutdown battle after that newspaper spent 40 days proclaiming that the blue team was winning. Granted, the liberals at the WaPo predict that Republicans will ultimately lose on the health care issue, and maybe they will, but, in fact, nobody ever really understood what the Democrats were trying to prove.  

It’s no surprise Americans were confused. A report from the Media Research Center found that broadcast coverage of the shutdown almost exclusively favored the Democrat narrative. Fully 87% of news reports were pro-Democrat while only 13% focused on Republican talking points, including the fact that Democrats had voted in March to end the subsidies to Obamacare that they were now demanding be restored.

Using their own eyes, Americans could see despite the barrage of biased media coverage that the military weren’t being paid, until Trump paid them. The Democrats didn’t care. Then, after thousands of flights were cancelled because air traffic controllers weren’t being paid, Democrats still didn’t care. They didn’t even care when poor people lost their SNAP benefits. On Day 40, when the Dems announced they wanted to push on with the shutdown until Thanksgiving, the entire country roared back, “Noooooooo!”

After almost six weeks of shutdown, at a cost estimate of anywhere between $7 billion and $15 billion a week, eight Democrat senators heard them and broke the logjam. The majority of Democrat lawmakers are outraged at the defection of the eight and, as they try to regroup, most seem to think all their problems will be solved if they get rid of their minority leader, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, who couldn’t hold his caucus together and refused to endorse New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

They have no idea why they lost.  

P.S. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, gets a high five for being the only Texas Democrat to vote to end the shutdown.

WINNER: Dan Patrick Wins on THC Ban

The bill that ended the government shutdown was also a big win for Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick because it includes a ban on the THC products that the Lt. Governor campaigned for during the last legislative session. The budget bill that President Trump signed on Wednesday also caps the amount of allowable THC, the intoxicating compound found in marijuana and hemp products, at 0.4 milligrams. The ban will eliminate the sale of most edibles, which have been marketed to children.

The Lt. Governor got another win this week when his former opponent, Mike Collier, announced he will run against him for the third time. Collier is an accountant from Houston who is popular with political reporters, but he’s never caught on with voters. When Collier ran as a Democrat in 2022, Patrick defeated him by almost a million votes. This time he’s running as an Independent.

WINNER: Texas A&M Targets Woke Curriculum

The regents at Texas A&M established new regulations this week to require academic presidential approval of classes that “advocate” race and gender ideology to ensure that nothing is taught that shames any race or ethnicity. The guidelines also prohibit advocating gender ideology that is disconnected from the biological realities of sex.

The word “teach” was changed to “advocate” in the final version of the regulations, but that didn’t appease the A&M faculty, who insist they won’t be able to teach anything—including the Holocaust and World War II—under the new regulations.    

Offices pushing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs were closed down on Texas campuses in 2021, but weeding out DEI in the curriculum is much more difficult. Remember that the mission of DEI professionals, stated on their website, is to “engage in ongoing ways to incorporate alternative narratives in the curriculum and provide robust learning opportunities on the history of racism, colonization, and conquest on how higher education and other sectors of society have been complicit in maintaining systems of privilege.”

The new regulations at Texas A&M are designed to flush out those “alternative narratives,” and eliminate the “opportunities” to teach history as a singular reflection of systemic racism. Keeping in mind that a large percentage of the faculty at A&M shared that mission when they were hired and you can understand why they are pushing back so hard now.

If you want to know more about how progressive ideology permeates curriculum, take a look at this study of syllabi by three professors at the Claremont Colleges released this week from campuses around the country. They found that there is virtually no ideological diversity in course readings and lectures. For example, a book like “The New Jim Crow,” released in 2010, argued that mass incarceration of African-Americans reflects the same systemic racism as slavery. That book appears more than any other book in criminal justice courses throughout the country. Meanwhile, Dr. James Forman, Jr., a professor at Yale Law School, wrote “Locking Up Our Own,” which disagrees with “systemic racism theory” in “The New Jim Crow.” It appears in fewer the 4% of criminal justice classes, even though it won a Pulitzer Prize. The study authors argue that on this issue and others, including America’s policy toward Israel and abortion, college courses only teach the progressive side of the argument.

Senate Bill 37, passed last session in Texas, gives the power to monitor curriculum back to Boards of Regents and takes it away from faculty members whose track record is poor. Kudos to Texas A&M for hacking a path through this jungle. 

WINNER: The Spirit of Ronald Reagan

Reagan believed that our education system must be rooted in the “self-evident truths of Western civilization.” That’s the exact opposite of DEI, which is why it is especially fitting this week that TPPF presented Chancellor Brandon Creighton and House Education Chair Brad Buckley our Ronald Reagan Award for their work transforming education in Texas.

Both championed school choice and Education Savings Accounts which finally busted the teachers’ union monopoly on our public schools and will give parents the right to send their child to the school they believe is best.

Creighton, who has been selected as the incoming chancellor at Texas Tech University, is the author of Senate Bill 17, which ended DEI on Texas campuses and Senate Bill 37, which reformed university governance and curriculum reform (see above.)

The leadership of Creighton and Buckley has not only changed Texas education, it will change the future of our state going forward, unleashing the potential of millions of Texas kids.

LOSER: Wacky Democrat Candidates Update

Democrats had hoped to gain another U.S. Senate seat next year by finally knocking off Republican stalwart Susan Collins, R-Maine. Collins, a moderate who frequently draws the ire of President Trump, often leaves both sides angry up there in the Pine Tree State as she tries to represent all sides of that purple state. But a Democrat poll was leaked this week showed her likely Democrat opponent, Graham Platner, is not strong enough to beat her based on past statements on social media where he called himself a communist, denigrated the police and called white people in rural Maine “stupid” and “racist.”

You gotta wonder why they wasted money doing a poll.

LOSER: Wacky Democrat Candidates Update—Part 2

California State Sen. Scott Weiner is said to be the leading candidate to replace former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who announced last week that she is going to retire. One of Pelosi’s claims to fame is that she was a special guest on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Weiner also revels in his San Francisco drag queen base, and has floated the idea of adding “Drag Queen 101” to the K-12 public school curriculum.

Of course, drag queens aren’t trans, so apparently there was at least one voter in San Francisco who wondered where Weiner stood on the issue of men in women’s sports. Weiner provided a clear answer this week. In a town hall, Tish Hyman, a Grammy nominated singer, asked him to respond to this question:  

“As a lesbian woman who was attacked in the women’s locker room at Gold’s Gym this week by a self-identifying trans woman with a documented history of domestic violence, I’m deeply concerned about women’s safety in female-only spaces.”

Weiner replied that, if he is elected, he’ll make protecting all women, including men who think they are women, a priority. By all means, California, send this guy to Congress.  

WINNER: Olympics Look at Banning Men in Women’s Sports

In related news, this week the International Olympic Committee (IOC) indicated it is taking steps to ban men in all female sports—a move undoubtedly pushed forward after a man beat a woman’s face in during a boxing match in the last summer Olympics in Paris.  

The hero of the story appears to be Dr. Jane Thornton, director of medicine and science of the IOC, who said their research shows that anyone who goes through puberty as a male has permanent advantages over females, and it cannot be mitigated by hormone treatment. The plan is to have this all sorted before the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

WINNER: BBC Admits Doctoring Trump Jan. 6 Footage

Using the same tactics CBS used to try to make Kamala Harris sound coherent, the British Broadcasting Corporation in England admitted this week that they had edited Donald Trump’s speech to supporters on Jan. 6, 2021 to make it appear he had told the crowd to storm the Capitol.

An apology from the media is always news worthy—plus, the Director General of the BBC and the CEO of News and Current Affairs both quit, saying they were appalled at the lapse in journalistic standards and insisting it had never happened before.

President Trump threatened to sue them for a billion dollars if they didn’t apologize and retract the news report. The story is fun to watch because the Brits say things like “dodgy edits” as well as that funny way they pronounce the word “controversy.” You can view the story here.

LOSER: Gavin Newsom in Houston on Saturday

A couple thousand people showed up to see California Gov. Gavin Newsom in Houston on Saturday for a rally after his big redistricting win in last Tuesday’s election, which catapulted him to the top of the Democrat presidential ticket.

As noted last week, Newsom chose to speak in the Lone Star State while millions of Texans were cheering on either Texas A&M or the Texas Tech Red Raiders both of whom had defining games last Saturday. Newsom apparently doesn’t get how much Texans love football.

Not only did he show up in the middle of college game day—as mentioned, we have three teams in the Top 10, and that’s just among the flagships—but then he left to fly to an international climate change conference where they plot ways to get rid of fossil fuels, which we produce here, big time. Newsom just doesn’t get Texas.

WINNER: Christmas Cookies Ice Cream

They say its back by popular demand, but I am wondering where you go to actually slam your fist on the counter and demand that an ice cream flavor be re-instated—but that’s beside the point. The good news is that Blue Bell Ice Cream—which as we all know is based in beautiful Brenham, Texas—announced this week that Christmas Cookie flavored ice cream is back just in time for Christmas season. Of course, we haven’t gotten through Thanksgiving yet, but go ahead, stock up.

Gig ‘em #3, Wreck ‘em # 6 Hook ‘em #10

The No. 3 rated Texas Aggies are the heavy favorites in tomorrow’s game against South Carolina. Coming off what proved to be an easy victory over Missouri last week, they are playing at Kyle Field at 11:30 am. No. 10 ranked Texas has the tougher game against the No. 5 ranked Georgia Bulldogs. That game is in Atlanta at 6:30 Texas Time. Meanwhile, the Texas Tech Red Raiders, ranked No. 6, are coming off their smashing victory against BYU last Saturday, cementing their spot at the top of the Big 12 and pushing them into undisputed playoff territory. Everyone expects them to beat Central Florida tomorrow. The game starts at 2:30 p.m. in Lubbock.

Today is Day 14 of the YouTube TV/ESPN Split—manage however you can and 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 Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. The dust is still setting after Tuesday’s election and I’m stuck in an airport dealing with a cancelled flight, so here’s how it looks to me:

Election Night: Texas Wins, Country Loses

The good news of the night was all in Texas. All 17 Constitutional amendments passed—property taxes, water infrastructure, dementia research and everything else. Austin voters had the good sense to turn down tax-hiking Proposition Q and, in San Antonio, voters defied their left-wing mayor and voted to support things they like—the San Antonio Spurs and the Rodeo.

In the Senate District 9 Special Election in North Texas, the casino gambling crowd was bombed back to the Stone Age, despite pouring millions into the race. There will be a run-off in late January between a Democrat and a Republican for the right to serve the remainder of the term of Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, but the district leans Republican. That special election runoff will happen just days before early voting begins for the real election, so it will be one of those frequent voter confusion exercises.

In the rest of the country, Democrats and their progressive left-wing alliance ran the table, taking both of the gubernatorial races that were up, electing a socialist as mayor of New York City and passing the California redistricting plan that will add enough new Democrat house seats to cancel out the new Republican house seats we added in Texas.

Granted, those victories were all in blue territory, but they were also the result of high inflation, the longest government shutdown in history and a shifting narrative on immigration. Voters blame all that on President Donald Trump, whether he deserves it or not. Conservatives who insist that the problem was that Trump was not on the ballot may be forgetting what a great advantage it was to have the blithering Kamala Harris at the top of the Democrat ticket. The only relevant question in politics is: “compared to what?”

One big loser of the week was CNN’s pollster Harry Enten who declared just last week that the Democrat party was “in the basement,” and the Democrat brand was “garbage.” He’s supposed to be unbiased, so it’s hard to chalk up his big miss to wishful thinking, but for the rest of us, it’s back to the battle stations. Being right about the issues is never enough.

WINNER: Pelosi is Finally Quitting

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced this week that she will retire in 2027 after serving 39 years in Congress. That gives us lots of time to compile our lists of the worst things that former Speaker Pelosi has done to the American people. For me, her decision to tear up President Trump’s first State of the Union address when he handed it to her in 2020 marked an awful historic moment, which was memorialized on TV. Pelosi said it made her feel “liberated.” Democrats frequently call Trump a threat to democracy, but what could have been a bigger threat than that petulant, hateful action symbolizing a rejection of one branch of our government by another?

Pelosi is one of 62 Democrats in Congress who are over the age of 70–which is why the young socialists are challenging so many of them. It’s a generational war as well as an ideological one.

WINNER: Fingers Crossed—Texans Go to Supreme Court on Pornography

Llano County, Texas removed 17 pretty clearly pornographic books from their public libraries in 2021. Calling it a “book ban,” a group of left-leaning residents sued them in federal court, saying their First Amendment rights had been violated.

A federal judge ruled against Llano in 2023 but this spring, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the county’s removal of certain books was government action not related to the First Amendment. Here’s the case.

Calling it government censorship, the plaintiffs have asked the Supreme Court to take the case and it looks like they have agreed. The controversial books include “Gender Queer,” a comic book-style memoir that has become the poster book for lefties who insist that children should be exposed to pretty much everything. It was in hundreds of schools in Texas. I read it so you didn’t have to.

My Review of Gender Queer is here. I read it before the numbers of kids identifying as non-binary sharply declined early this year, making it clear it was some kind of contagion, undoubtedly exacerbated by books like this. Let me know what you think.

LOSER: The Shutdown—Day 37

I wrote last week that air traffic controllers will ultimately decide when the government shutdown will end, but now it looks like the Democrats think the chaos is benefiting them politically, so they want to keep the shutdown going.

I am in Denver trying to get to Lubbock for Texas Tech’s game tomorrow. I will survive either way, but that doesn’t mean air traffic controllers shouldn’t be paid, and that air traffic is snarled across the country. This is a political game of chicken and it is not likely to end well for the party in power. The Senate is voting this morning so perhaps we’ll see some movement — but the signs aren’t good.

WINNER: Wreck ‘em & Gig ‘em

ESPN’s College GameDay will be streaming live from Lubbock on Saturday morning as the Red Raiders of Texas Tech take on BYU. GameDay starts at 8 a.m. so if you are not in Lubbock, tune in (you may be watching online since YouTube is fighting with Disney) to see if you see anyone you know. Kick-off is at 11 a.m. The No. 3 ranked Aggies are playing Missouri tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. Texas has a bye week. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is speaking in Houston at noon on Saturday. Guess he isn’t a college football fan. Not surprised.

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.

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