Category: Winners & Losers

Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners & Losers for the previous week. After Donald J. Trump’s Second Inauguration on Monday changed so many things, he’s got dozens of winners. The Texas Legislature has finished all of its ceremonials and is up and running too, so there’s lots going on, no matter where you look. Here’s who made the list:

Winner: Donald Trump’s List of Immediate Changes

In the ‘70s, everybody agreed that the “medium is the message,” and Trump’s a boomer who clearly gets that. He is the medium, and the message he delivered is that American exceptionalism is back. You could see that in everything from the guests on the inaugural stage, which included legendary innovators like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, to his take-no-prisoners inaugural address. The contrast of the winners and losers on the inaugural stage also amplified Trump’s message. The somber faces of President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama sent a clear message—their dark, divisive vision of America has been rejected.

In terms of Trump’s Day One initiatives, it’s hard to rank the list, but my personal favorite is the president’s declaration that “henceforth, the official policy of the United States government is that there are only two genders: male and female.” (ICYMI, see my op-ed “Gender is Over! Sex is Back!”) If you’ve forgotten a few of Trump’s initiatives since Monday, here’s the list from his speech—all winners.

• Declaring a national emergency at the border (and sending troops)
• Designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations
• Making bringing down inflation, costs and prices a top Cabinet priority
• Ending the Green New Deal
• Revoking the Elective Vehicle Mandate
• Establishing an External Revenue Service to collect tariffs
• Establishing the Dept. of Government Efficiency
• Ending government censorship, bringing back free speech
• Restoring fair, equal and impartial justice
• Bringing law and order back to the cities
• Ending DEI social engineering programs and forging a color-blind and merit-based society
• Reinstating service members who were dismissed because they wouldn’t take COVID vaccine
• Rebuilding the military
• Initiating a federal hiring freeze
• Changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America
• Restoring the name of Mt. McKinley
• Retaking the Panama Canal
• Planting the American flag on Mars

Winner: School Choice Gets a Billion in State Budget

The time has come for Education Savings Accounts in Texas. Most Texans have supported school choice for years, and Gov. Greg Abbott has proved again and again that it is a top priority for him. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick proudly noted at the State Senate swearing in ceremony last week that senators have passed parental choice legislation five times. This week Texas lawmakers put their money where their mouths are by allocating a billion dollars for the program in both the Texas House and the Texas Senate’s proposed budgets.

Loser: National Cathedral Bishop Embarrasses Christians

In what can only be viewed as a pitch to get a guest slot on ABC’s “The View,” Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, launched into a left-wing harangue targeting President Trump at a prayer service in the National Cathedral. In lecturing Trump, Budde insisted that because of his policies, illegal immigrants and so-called “trans people” are living in fear. Trump has been clear that people who entered the country illegally must be held accountable, but if “trans people” are living in fear, it is because people like Budde are fueling it.

It is notable that President Trump did not ask Budde to apologize to him; he demanded that she apologize to the entire country for her outrageous partisan flag waving.

Bishop Budde should look at what is going on in Britain (the mother country of her church) and the rest of Europe where health providers have switched to counseling for children who believe they are the opposite sex. Puberty blockers and sex change operations have been discontinued there because they have shown to be ineffective and harmful in treating people suffering from gender dysphoria. Trump is proposing the same. If Budde truly wants to care for her flock, she should stop stoking paranoia and division and look at how to really help people.

It is ironic that earlier this month former President Obama and President Trump were seen talking and laughing together at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral at the National Cathedral. Some real grace shown there on both sides—Budde should have been paying attention.

Full disclosure, I am an Episcopalian, one of many this week who were embarrassed by Bishop Budde’s antics.

Winner: Agriculture Secretary Nominee Brooke Rollins—A No Brainer

Both Texas senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz introduced Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, as an appointment whose confirmation should be a “no brainer.” Throughout frequently intense questioning by the Senate Agriculture Committee, Rollins demonstrated that the Texas senators were absolutely right. Because of her broad policy range and depth, particularly on agricultural issues, trade and labor policies, even cynical Democrat bomb-throwers like California Sen. Adam Schiff and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock didn’t lay a glove on her. Rollins, of course, is the former CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and she did us all proud.

Loser: PBS Starts Elon Musk Nazi Salute Lie

Normally these crazy stories come off fringy social media threads, but the smear campaign that Elon Musk delivered a Nazi salute at an Inauguration Day event seems to have been put out there by PBS, who delivered it with a straight face. Four days later, it is still running in the news cycle even though both the Anti-Defamation League and Benjamin Netanyahu have called it bogus. Netanyahu called Musk “a great friend to Israel [who] visited after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

Still, U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, D-NY, said Musk’s gesture “can only be interpreted as a Seig Heil salute that is synonymous with Nazi support for Hitler,” and the press is still replete with stories debating whether Musk actually delivered a Nazi salute, with most leaning toward the affirmative. In a background story, the New York Times just released a thousand word report on the history of the Nazi salute.

Jon Stewart also suggested that Eric Trump made some kind of Hitler hand gesture during the Inauguration. A few questions: What is wrong with these people? Do they have any idea who Americans are? Do they really think that broad support for Trump indicates any support for Hitler? Finally, why is the media treating this stupidity as if it is actual news?

Winner: Abbott Presents Bill for Border Security to Federal Government

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a bill to Congress this week for the $11 billion that the state of Texas has spent doing the job the federal government is supposed to do—securing the border. In his invoice, Abbott included the cost of busing illegal immigrants to blue state sanctuary cities, a move that helped the country finally understand the impact thousands and thousands of illegal aliens can have on communities, services, crime and quality of life. On behalf of Texas taxpayers, thank you!

Loser: Joe Biden’s Last Minute Pardons

In what may have been his last official act, former President Joe Biden issued a host of pardons as he went out the door on Monday including reprieves to both his brothers, his sister and their spouses. Perhaps to distract the focus away from the obvious financial implications of the family pardons which, like the one delivered to his son Hunter, exonerate his siblings from everything they’ve ever done or will do, he threw in some political players as well.

He pardoned COVID-19 czar Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and every member of the House Committee that investigated January 6. The pardons mean that the recipients can’t be punished, but they can still be investigated and while we are all tired of hearings, we must push forward and get the facts on every one of these people—family and all. History needs to know.

Winner: Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

DOGE head Elon Musk may have identified a future loser, this week, the penny. Musk just announced that it costs about 3 cents to mint a 1 cent penny, which he says added up to $179 million in 2023. Presumably, this is the first step toward moving us to a cashless country, but it will take a while. In the meantime, this is a great issue for Musk and for Trump. Virtually everyone in the country will have an opinion on what to do about the penny, and the new administration will undoubtedly come up with all kinds of ways to make sure those opinions are heard.

Texas will have a number of strong voices on the DOGE Committee in the U.S. House to help jump start the legislative effort. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson appointed four Texans to serve there—U.S. Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Prosper, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Flower Mound, Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas. The always outspoken Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia will chair the committee, so it should be fun.

What Ohio State’s Championship was Worth

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Ohio State Buckeyes would be worth almost $2 billion if the team were sold on the open market. The report comes from a finance professor at Indiana, but it doesn’t look like there’s any built-in pro-Indiana bias since his team didn’t make the top 25 list.

Texas came in second to Ohio State, with its value estimated at $1.9 billion. Texas A&M came in at $1 billion even, ninth on the list. There has been talk of private equity entering the college football world for a while. Now that we are in that long boring stretch of empty time, analyzing recruitment and transfers and watching the rebuild for next year’s college football season, we can also ponder the possible impact private equity might have on the game.

If I missed one of your winners and losers for the week, email me.

Have a great weekend.

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

Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.

Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners & Losers for the week. The Texas Legislature is officially sworn in, the House has selected a speaker and we have 72 more hours left of President Joe Biden. We are going to miss him on Winners & Losers.

According to the last polls taken this week, the Biden administration is viewed as one of the biggest losers of all time. The latest CNN poll found that only 36% of Americans approve of the way Biden has handled the presidency. And 64% view the Biden presidency as an overall failure.

Gallup has Biden’s approval at 39% and they show that under his leadership Americans believe the country has lost ground on virtually every issue that matters. Sixty percent of Americans believe America has failed on the economy, reining in the national debt, immigration, terrorism, trade, national defense and maintaining our position in the world. We frequently say we are a divided nation, but we are not equally divided when it comes to Joe Biden—it’s more like a third who support him versus two-thirds who don’t.

Biden’s awful “farewell to the nation” speech on Wednesday night makes it clear he has no idea why he (and Kamala) lost the election. He actually doubled-down on his losing messages while trying to get people to believe that Democrats were beaten by oligarchs and tech moguls with lots of money, forgetting that their team spent millions more than Trump.

Unfortunately, this isn’t all going to end in 72 hours. Much of the Democrats’ ridiculous questioning of Trump’s cabinet nominees this past week as well as their votes in the House come out of the same playbook.

Winner: Attorney General Nomination Pam Bondi’s Confirmation Testimony

All of Trump’s nominees did pretty well this week during their confirmation hearings. Rubio was exemplary, but my favorite response came from Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi who faced down crazed Democrat zealot Sen. Richard Blumenthal who tried to inject a litmus test into the hearing: “You have to be able to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. … You have to be able to say that January 6 insurrectionists who committed violence shouldn’t be pardoned,” Blumenthal said.

Bondi didn’t buy it and she slapped him down: “No, I don’t. … I’m not going to sit up here and say anything that I need to say to get confirmed by this body. I don’t have to say anything.”

Like Biden, Blumenthal and the other malicious senators who questioned the nominees didn’t get the message Americans sent on Nov. 5—they care about the economy, the border and crime—they don’t care about Jan. 6 or the 2020 election.

Winner: House Bill Banning Men in Women’s Sports

After the November election, it should not be difficult for any elected official to support a mandate that men should not be allowed to play on women’s sports teams. In fact, 69% of Americans say they oppose boys in girls’ sports and that percentage is increasing.

Still, only two Democrats (both Texans) voted in support of the Protection of Women and Girls Sports Act—Congressmen Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. The bill will prohibit federal funds from going to schools that let boys who think they are girls participate on the girls’ team.

In a desperate search for some kind of moral high ground, the rest of their Democrat colleagues managed to contort themselves into crazyville, suggesting the legislation would lead to genital inspections by sexual predators. Hard to figure how they got to that. The wording of the legislation is clear—your sex on your birth certificate determines which team you can play on. Apparently, House Democrats weren’t paying attention to what happened to the last public official who championed “they/them” over us.

Winner: Ceasefire Agreement Could be a Winner

But we’ll have to wait and see. Getting some of the hostages out is a huge victory, but Hamas is notorious for violating these agreements and Israel is right to be more than a little suspicious. However, there’s no need to get into the debate over whether Biden or Trump deserves the credit for the deal—it’s not debatable. Trump absolutely did it with his “hell to pay” promise. If Biden could have gotten it done sooner, why didn’t he?

Winner: Texas Gets $27 Billion from Fossil Fuel

Texas oil and gas producers this week announced that the state received $27 billion in royalties from the fossil fuel industry last year—about $75 million a day, to support schools, public safety and essential services. Speaking to the massive forces pushing to shut down the fossil fuel industry both in Texas and the world, Texas made it clear that here we see fossil fuels as an asset, not a liability. Since the royalty subsidies began in 2007, they have contributed $275 billion to state coffers.

This week, Texas also got the announcement that Texas has a $24 billion budget surplus—making Texas taxpayers winners after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick reiterated his commitment to making property tax relief a top priority for the surplus funds.

Loser: California Again

Apparently, even the devastation of the wildfires has not changed the progressive “climate change, open border” delusions in California. As the fires were still burning, they doubled the amount of money they will spend to “Trump proof” the state against the new administration’s policies. California lawmakers slapped down $50 million, including $25 million to provide lawyers to help residents who are about to be deported.

State Senate Budget Chairman, Democrat Scott Weiner, said California faces two massive challenges, the wildfires and the Trump administration, which is threatening to deport residents who are here illegally. Seriously?

Gov. Gavin Newsom did announce that he is rolling back the massive permit requirements from California Environmental Quality and the California Coastal Act that routinely delay building projects for years. Local government regulations will still be in place so it remains to be seen if enough Californians get that the hellish bureaucracy that they have created not only prevented government from taking steps to prevent the fires, it could also prevent residents from being able to rebuild and recover.

Winner: Mark Zuckerberg Again — It’s the Vibe Shift

After I put Zuckerberg on the winner’s list last week, several people, mostly men, told me that that Zuckerberg is faking his born-again anti-wokeness. They insist he’s not really one of us and he doesn’t believe what he’s saying. My response to that is, “so what?” It doesn’t matter. Getting rid of DEI programs at Meta and on all his platforms is not simply ending the program, it is abandoning DEI’s ugly core mission. Meta had diversity-based hiring and recruitment wired into everything they do. They got all their materials and vendors from “diversity-based” sources and they had rigid quotas on virtually everything linked to racial and gender identity. Zuckerberg says all that has to go. As we have seen in higher education in Texas that is easier said than done, but the first step is to say it and now Zuckerberg has.

Granted, he may just be courting Trump. He put up a million for Trump’s inauguration and added Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, to his Board of Directors, but again, “so what if he’s courting Trump?” Like his announcement last week that he’s dropping Facebook fact checkers and moving the monitoring operation to Texas, Zuck’s changes represent what has been called the biggest “vibe shift” since Trump’s re-election in November. Whether he’s truly seen the light or just pretending, it will be hard to roll it back. Others will follow.

Loser: Texas A&M’s Trip to Chicago

University leaders across the state have repeatedly assured the Legislature they are fully on board with Senate Bill 17, passed last session, which prohibits DEI programs and activities that divide students on the basis of race and gender. Still, it is not uncommon for news stories like this to pop up revealing that Texas A&M was recruiting black, Hispanic, and Native American students to attend a conference in Chicago where white and Asian students were not eligible to participate. When asked about it on Twitter, Gov. Greg Abbott became an instant winner for immediately tweeting:

“Hell, no. It’s against Texas law and violates the U.S. Constitution. It will be fixed immediately or the president will soon be gone.”

Texas A&M President Mark Walsh quickly backed down after Abbott’s shout out but the controversy will undoubtedly continue. DEI is deeply embedded in every cranny of university life and culture. It will take vigilance and commitment to finally root it out.

Winner: Jane Nelson Gavels in the Texas House

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the Texas House finally elected a new speaker on Tuesday, under the watchful eye of Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson. Nelson, who served in the Texas Senate for over 30 years, brought the same precision, tone and grace to the proceedings that she used while chairing the powerful Senate Finance Committee for over a decade. Nelson reminded the lawmakers in the lower chamber that they are all Texans—all family, and they need to take care of each other. We’ll be watching to see how that works out—but it was great to see a strong, competent woman in the chair.

Winner: Monday, January 20^th

Hundreds of Texans will be in Washington, D.C. on Monday to watch Donald J. Trump be sworn in as the 47^th President of the United States. If you are staying home, you can see them on TV. The Lone Star State loves Trump and as the biggest red state on the map, lots of Texans are naturally called to represent.

There’s also a big football game Monday night. Ohio State has the line, but I’m betting on Notre Dame. It’s a God thing.

Winner: Rumor that Coach Prime is Going to the Cowboys

Who knows, but this Sports Illustrated report sure makes it sound like it’s a real thing.

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.

Winners & Losers Digital is back for 2025! Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners and who turned up on the Losers list for the previous week. Now that the ball has dropped and we are in the final countdown for the opening of the 89^th Legislative Session in Texas and the swearing in of the once and future President is about to take place, it’s time to take a look at who made it—and who did not—in the first full week of January.

Loser: California, its Governor and the whole Progressive, Left-Coast Model

The tragic fires in California may not have been preventable, but they were predictable—the Santa Ana winds blow every year. California is a big, rich state and it should have had a plan. Unfortunately, Gov. Gavin Newsom was too busy working on legislation to “protect” California from the policies of the incoming Trump administration to attend to the critical issue of wildfire mitigation. Forest underbrush wasn’t cleared, controlled burns weren’t set and there wasn’t enough water available. Current estimates are now as high as $150 billion to build back and since California is one of the most difficult places in the country to build anything because of onerous government red tape, you can double or triple that. Biden promised that the U.S. Government would pick up 100% of the firefighting and cleanup tab for the first 180 days (because California has no money, of course). Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pointed out that the media would absolutely hold Republican leaders accountable for such a massive disaster failure, but so far, Newsom and other California leaders are not taking much heat from the press.

Winner: Women’s Sports & Women’s Rights

Yesterday’s ruling by the U.S. District Court of Eastern Kentucky which pulverized President Joe Biden’s Title IX rules change was a big victory for women’s sports and women’s rights. Chief Judge Danny C. Reeves pulled no punches, calling the proposed rules changes “unlawful.” Reeves was crystal clear, saying there is nothing in Title IX to suggest it means anything other than to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. He said the idea of twisting that principle to include gender identity “turns Title IX on its head” and to use it to open locker rooms and bathrooms to both sexes “makes no sense.”

Finally, the ruling states that requiring teachers to use whatever pronouns their students dictate—like “they and them” instead of “he and she” clearly violates the free speech principles in the First Amendment. This ruling is going to make a big difference in our educational institutions and, hopefully, in the culture.

Winner: Bring Hollywood to Texas

Without capitalizing on the tragedy of the people of Southern California, it is important to note that a coalition of actors and other movie workers were already pressing the Texas Legislature to allocate more funds for film production in the Lone Star State. Their goal is to “move Hollywood to Texas.” And as Matthew McConaughey says in their latest message to the legislators, “if you don’t like what Hollywood’s been dishing, let’s take over the kitchen.” If you haven’t seen their latest spot featuring McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton and Renee Zellweger, it’s called “True to Texas – Let’s Bring Production Home.” You can watch it here.

Winner: Trump’s Idea to Buy Greenland—Texas Should Do It!

Trump is an ideas guy and his going after Greenland is one of his best. He’s right that Greenland is needed for national security and it’s a strategic source of rare minerals. Unfortunately, Washington kills good ideas. Congress will stall, Democrats will push back, crazies in Europe and the United States will weigh in and rile up the Greenlanders and it will all be tied up in some bogus international court for years.

It makes more sense for Texas to buy Greenland. It will be faster and more efficient. Think about what happened at the southern border when Trump was first elected. He wanted to fix the problem, but he ran into all kinds of resistance from sanctuary cities and the Washington swamp. Meanwhile, Texas simply outlawed sanctuary cities, deployed hundreds of border patrol officers, fenced off the biggest entry points, put buoys in the river and substantially stemmed the illegal migrant flow.

Texas could pick up Greenland without much drama or bureaucratic red tape and it won’t cost much when you consider the almost immediate return on investment.

Texas could also remind the Greenlanders that we actually know what it is like to transition from being an independent country to a state. We can assure them they can retain their own identity, like we do, and we can help them set up a “keep Greenland Greenland” campaign.

Trump would still get the credit, of course. It was his winning idea.

Winner: Gov. Greg Abbott Endorsed “Gulf of Texas” Idea

Along the same lines, in an X tweet this week, Gov. Abbott amended President-elect Trump’s suggestion that the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the “Gulf of America” to “Gulf of Texas” which makes more sense. We’ve all suffered through left-wing name changes like calling Columbus Day “Indigenous People’s Day,” so it’s time that normal people make some suggestions — a “Gulf of Texas” is a great start.

Winner: Zuckerberg Moving Content Moderators to Texas

Meta founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced this week that he is laying off fact checkers and will be employing a “Community Notes” system like X so that anyone can add comments if they think something inaccurate has been posted. Zuckerberg said the new system will be monitored in Texas because he thinks he’s less likely to get biased workers here than at his HQ in California.

All Meta’s soon-to-be laid-off fact checking groups denounced the move, insisting that they are arbiters of the truth and the only thing that stands between us and complete anarchy. But Politifact’s annual “Lie of the Year” award demonstrates the problem. Readers could select from a variety of “lies” from 2024—all but two were uttered by conservatives. The lie that won was Trump’s statement about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating pets. The lie that was not on the list was the claim by Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, that Joe Biden was absolutely fit to run for re-election. That seems like a “pants on fire” moment.

Loser: Justin Trudeau and His Left-Wing World View

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this week that he will be stepping down before Canadians make a move to push him out. Trudeau began his final decline in 2022 when he employed emergency powers to go after truckers who were protesting the country’s extreme COVID mandates. Trudeau also authorized freezing the bank accounts of truckers who opposed his policies.

Most recently, Trudeau chided Americans, saying the failure to elect Kamala Harris was a setback for women’s rights. President-elect Trump has suggested making Canada a 51^st state, but Trudeau has left it in such a mess that we’d be better off without it. Canadian conservatives are running almost 30 points ahead right now. Let them take over and fix it.

Winner: McDonald’s Ends DEI Programs

McDonald’s is the latest big company to announce it has ditched its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs and is re-focused on what is good for business, customers and workers. America First Legal and conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who has pushed a dozen other big companies to abandon DEI, have had McDonald’s in their sites for a while. As companies abandon DEI, which research shows has failed to provide any positive benefit, the big losers are the multi-billion dollar DEI industry and extortion groups like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index which forces companies to follow policies based on racial and sexual identity, regardless of their impact on the business or workers. It took a long time for the phony ideology of DEI to become embedded in our culture and it is going to take a long time to weed it out—but Americans don’t like it and it is time for DEI to go.

Winner: Golden-Cheeked Warblers in the Texas Hill Country

My colleagues at TPPF began a legal battle a decade ago to remove the Golden-Cheeked Warbler, which lives in the Texas Hill Country, from the endangered species list. This week, the U.S. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife announced the warbler was no longer in need of an endangered designation, because its migratory patterns are expanding and it is generally thriving. The U.S. Department of the Interior makes the final decision on whether to keep the endangered designation, but TPPF’s legal pushing has helped to finally get the process moving. TPPF can also take the credit for the announcement by Black Rock this week that they have dropped out of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, a program that pushes ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) policies that block investment in fossil fuels in the name of fighting climate change. TPPF’s Life Powered program has been working for years to fight ESG and give Americans the truth about energy issues. It’s working.

Loser: The Presidential Medal of Freedom is Not What it Used to Be

Many conservatives were rightly outraged this week when President Joe Biden gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to George Soros, who shares much of the blame for the increase in violence and crime to American cities after he spent the last two decades bankrolling district attorney candidates who wouldn’t put people in jail. Biden also gave the medal to Hillary Clinton, because she was the “first woman nominated for president on a major party ticket.”

The Presidential Medal of Freedom was given to Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mother Teresa, but the standards seem to have dropped a bit. Granted, civil rights warrior Fannie Lou Hamer got the award posthumously this year—the Biden team undoubtedly did not know she was an outspoken opponent of abortion—but so did clothes designer Ralph Lauren and Annie Wintour, the editor of Vogue, who organizes the annual Met Gala, a big lefty get-together in New York City. Former U.S. Senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy also received the award, but apparently Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump’s designee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services, was not invited to the ceremony.

For the folks in the Biden White House, freedom does just seem to be “another word for nothing left to lose.”

Big Game Tonight!

By the time we are back here next week, we will know whether the University of Texas will be playing Notre Dame in Atlanta on January 20. Let’s not say anything about that now—you know how the Longhorns are and we don’t want to do anything to jinx it. Have a great weekend!

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

Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.

Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.er you get your podcasts.

The War and The Debate – 31 Days Until the Election

Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers.

A strong new job report came out this morning, just as the radio show was going on the air and I am sure President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will take the credit. However, it is often the case that a huge percentage of new jobs created nationwide are in Texas as a result of the state’s conservative low tax rates and reasonable regulation policies that let businesses grow. Once we get the Texas numbers, I will report back.

Winner: Israel & Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

We know now that while Netanyahu was making a monumental speech at the United Nations last week, the Israeli Defense Forces were taking out Hassan Nasrallah, a founder of Hezbollah (which means “party of God”), a murderous killer who is responsible for, among other things, the suicide bombing that killed over 200 Marines in Beirut in 1983. Netanyahu said Nasrallah wasn’t “a terrorist,” he was “the terrorist.” His primary mission was to kill Jews.

“War on the West” author Douglas Murray said this week that the Torah teaches not to feel joy over the death of your enemies. That said, Murray notes that he is not Jewish, and he is going to rejoice over the death of Nasrallah. I am not Jewish either and I am also happy that this force of evil has been taken out. It has been noted that Israel has eliminated more people on the U.S. terrorist watch list in six weeks than the U.S. has eliminated in 20 years.

Learning nothing from all this, the Biden-Harris administration continues to push back against Israel moving forward in the war even as they give lip service to supporting Israel’s right to defend itself. They refuse to understand that the only real way for Israel to defend itself and stop the escalating conflict in the Middle East is to go in and win the war. Netanyahu is rightfully ignoring Biden and Harris.

Winner: J.D. Vance’s Debate Performance

U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance’s smashing victory over Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in the Vice Presidential Debate on Tuesday was the biggest unmasking of a media lie since they tried to tell us that Biden was fit and ready for duty. The media’s incessant attacks on Vance had resulted in astronomical negative ratings for him. Before the debate, he was very unpopular. After the debate, his ratings went up 19 points. Vance busted out of his “cat lady” image immediately and introduced America to a smart young guy who knows about issues and is quick on his feet. It’s been a while since we’ve seen one of those, and it was beyond refreshing.

Vance called his opponent “Tim,” as if they were friends, acknowledged points of agreement and generally reminded people how to disagree respectfully. A “sub-loser” this week is Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who played Vance in Gov. Tim Walz’s debate prep. Whatever Buttigieg did, it was wrong. Walz wasn’t ready for Vance. He clearly didn’t know what hit him.

Losers: VP Debate Moderators Margaret Brennan & Nora O’Donnell

Of course, Walz didn’t need to do much to defend himself in the debate—the moderators were taking care of all that. Going into the debate, it was hard to imagine that the moderators could be any more biased than ABC’s David Muir and Lindsey Davis, but the two women from CBS News lowered the bar even farther, seemingly unaware that every question they asked was premised on the Democrat Party’s view of the world.

They did not ask questions about the war in Ukraine or the faltering economy. When they asked about immigration, they focused on the grave injustice against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio instead of the millions of Americans in border states and now U.S. cities that are crumbling under the weight of Biden-Harris’ open border policies. Instead of talking about the Biden-Harris sluggish response to Hurricane Helene (Biden didn’t come back from the beach to monitor the storm) the moderators asked an outraged question about “climate change denial,” which is not even a thing anymore.

Since the moderators knew they had an abortion question, why didn’t they bother to read the abortion legislation Walz signed which does not limit abortion at any stage of pregnancy—up to the nineth month. Walz denied that when Vance pointed it out, so perhaps the governor hasn’t read it either.

Democrats invariably blame former President Donald Trump for the hate and vitriol in our political discourse but if you want to see what real hate looks like up close, check out the contempt on Margaret Brennan’s face when she condescendingly “woman-splained” to Vance that the illegal immigrants in Ohio are actually legal. When Vance insisted on laying out the facts, Brennan simply seethed.

It was clear from the beginning that the debate was another “Three Against One” situation for Republicans but by the time it was over, it turned out to be “One Against Three.” The senator whipped them all.

Winner: Greg Abbott’s October 7th Proclamation and His Request to the Texas Media

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation this week directing that flags fly at half-staff on Monday, Oct. 7 and proclaiming a moment of silence for the victims of the terrorist massacre in Israel last year. He also asked the Texas media to read out the names of the seven American hostages who are still being held by the Hamas terrorists. They are:

Edan Alexander

Itay Chen

Sagui Dekel-Chen

Gadi Haggai

Judith Weinstein Haggai

Omer Neutra

Being forced to watch the Biden-Harris administration vacillate on its support for Israel daily, it is great to live in a state that unequivocally supports our strongest ally in the Middle East—Israel.

Winner: Tony Gonzales’ Release of ICE statistics

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, drove the news cycle for several days this week when he released statistics from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the number of criminals who are in the country who entered illegally—including 13,000 who have been convicted of murder either in the U.S. or abroad. Gonzales went after the long-sought statistics from ICE and made them part of the immigration narrative—which is a tough thing to pull off. Gonzales, whose district includes a huge part of the Texas border, knows as much about the negative impact of the deluge of illegal immigration under the Biden-Harris administration as anyone. Democrats have quibbled with the ICE numbers, but they can’t make them go away.

Loser: State Sen. Molly Cook’s statement on Israel

State Sen. Molly Cook, D-Houston, was elected to replace former Sen. John Whitmire who was elected Mayor of Houston last year. Whitmire is a strong supporter of Israel, resisting pressure from left-wing progressives who pressured him to issue a proclamation in support of a ceasefire shortly after the Hamas attack. Whitmire told the Jewish community: “When some of your enemies asked me to issue a proclamation for a ceasefire, I did not respond.”

His replacement, Cook, who never condemned the Oct. 7 attack and declined to attend a film about it at the Holocaust Remembrance Museum in Houston, has a different view. Last week, she issued a statement saying: “I cannot stay silent while the United States facilitates the indiscriminate bombing and starving of an entire population.”

Jewish leaders in Houston called Cook’s comments extremely harmful. They worry that her comments could fuel anti-Jewish hatred and spur attacks on Jewish institutions. We should all worry. Hopefully, Houston Democrats will continue to look to Whitmire, not Cook, for leadership.

Winner: Caitlin Clark – WNBA Rookie of the Year

No. 2 ranked Texas doesn’t play this week, but there is a round ball story that makes the winner’s list. Caitlin Clark has transformed the WNBA, just as she transformed women’s basketball in the NCAA and she was just named “Rookie of the Year.” Clark averaged almost 20 points a game and set a league record for the number of assists—19 in one game—and for triple doubles. She hit 122 three-point shots this season. Clark’s team, the Indiana Fever, also led the league in attendance, even though they didn’t make the playoff finals—which says it all. Women’s basketball has arrived. Many women players, past and present, have played a role in that, but nothing outweighs Clark’s contribution this year.

Texas A&M kicks off against Mizzou tomorrow at 11 a.m., and Texas Tech takes on Arizona at 10 p.m., book-ending more than 12 hours of college football tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

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

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

Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.

Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. Right after the show, today, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations, calling it a “swamp of anti-Semitic bile.”

Netanyahu’s speech would undoubtedly have put him at the top of the winner’s list this week if he had spoken before the deadline. I’ll take a closer look at what he said and circle back on that next week. Here’s who made the list:

Winner: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

Paxton is suing the Biden-Harris administration for their latest requirement that the state actively recruit “LGBTQ+ affirming” foster parents for children who are gay or are suffering from gender confusion or gender dysphoria. This outrageous new federal rule would also require that foster parents pledge to provide “appropriate mental and behavioral health support to LGBTQ+ youth,” an ambiguous statement that could usher in all kinds of bureaucratic interpretation and abuse.

This is one more attempt to inject the inaccurate idea that gender is non-binary into our institutions and adopt the current progressive thinking about how to deal with so-called “transgender” children. Children, including those who think they are the opposite sex, can flourish under loving foster parents. They should not be required to be indoctrinated with left-wing gender theory. Paxton is right for not giving an inch on this.

Loser: Kamala Harris’ Holistic Interview

Even the New York Times panned Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, saying she “failed to answer questions substantively.” That may be the understatement of the year. Harris was simply awful, answering a question about the economy with some gibberish about transportation and its relationship to housing and the need to look at it all “holistically.” She used the word “holistically” three times in 30 seconds.

This was Harris’ first one-on-one interview on cable and she could not have had a stronger champion than Ruhle, who said following the interview that it didn’t matter that Harris had not provided “clear or direct answers” because they weren’t talking about “clear or direct issues.”

By contrast, former President Donald Trump held a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City yesterday where he addressed dozens of “clear and direct” issues from immigration and the economy to Ukraine and the Middle East. The New York Times didn’t like Trump’s comments either – charging that he rambled and talked for far too long. They aren’t wrong about that, but the comparison of the two candidates’ public appearances highlights one of the most basic rules of politics – you can’t beat something with nothing – a rule that is increasingly a problem for Harris.

Loser: Harris Cleanup Tour

After Harris’ disastrous MSNBC interview, Mark Cuban, who still owns 27% of the Dallas Mavericks, went on a Harris media clean-up tour, saying he was supporting the Vice President over Trump because he thought she would be better for business. Cuban doesn’t like Trump’s tariff proposals, but it’s still hard to see how he believes Harris would be better for business, particularly because she proposes to increase the corporate income tax rate to 28% – more than they pay in China or the EU. What could be a more anti-business, job-killing move?

But the bottom line is that Cuban said Harris’ team liked his ideas better than Trump did – so it was kind of a reverse Shark Tank thing.

Cuban told Fox News that he would like to be head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a Harris administration – which may be a very long shot considering how large a role DEI would likely play in hiring, should Harris be elected.  Most of the “White Dudes for Kamala” aren’t actually looking for jobs.

Loser: Gavin Newsom Apology for Slavery

California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statement this week apologizing for the Golden State’s role in perpetrating slavery, even though California entered the Union as a free state in 1850. The problem with this kind of apology put forth by someone who played no role in perpetrating the crime is that it requires the apologizer to affirm that our history of slavery continues to cause harm in American life today and deny that any progress has been made in working for racial equality.

Newsom’s apology comes after California spent a couple of years determining how to award reparations to African Americans whose descendants had lived in California prior to 1900. The cost, at $1.2 million per person or about a trillion total, was not financially feasible, so Newsom just said he was sorry.

If Newsom wants to offer an apology that would matter, he should tell the veterans, drug addicts, broken families and the mentally ill who are sleeping on California’s city streets how sorry he is that his state’s drug and housing policies have exacerbated their problems. That’s something he actually should apologize for.

Winner: Bastrop County

Elon Musk is moving the headquarters for “X,” formally known as Twitter, to Bastrop County.  Space X and The Boring Company are already located in Bastrop County where Musk has also built Hyperloop Plaza – which includes a bodega and a pub. Musk’s move to Texas continues to benefit the state as the billionaire entrepreneur’s innovation and energy perfectly align with Texas’ productivity and spirit.

Loser: China

China’s newest nuclear submarine has sunk in a shipyard near Wuhan, although it’s not really news, since it happened sometime last spring. China had been trying to cover it up, but news leaked out this week, even as the government still has no official comment.

The U.S. has an advantage over China in submarines and undersea technology and this latest sinking ship makes it clear we will stay in the lead for some time. China’s immediate push in developing submarines is to put pressure on Taiwan and discourage outside intervention. When it comes to military parity, it is always good news if China is losing.

Loser: Britain’s Last Call

England voted in a liberal government the other month and I am adding this to the loser list as a reminder of how progressives think. It seems some in the new Labour Party government believe it would be a good idea to require that bars and pubs close earlier in an attempt to force the Brits to drink less.

Progressive government bureaucrats sanctimoniously note that the state of British health is “morally reprehensible” – a problem they insist must be addressed. They are looking at ways to tackle obesity too. In response to outcries about individual freedom and “nanny state” policies, the government has backed off, but only a little. They will try to work with industries to get them to cut back on drinking hours and fatty foods on their own, but if they don’t, there’s the threat of regulation.

Winner: Texas is Still No. 1

Top ranked Texas is playing Mississippi State in Austin tomorrow and Texas State will play Sam Houston State in San Marcos. Fans will have to maneuver around Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York and Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, who will be campaigning before each game for Austin Democrat congressman Greg Casar, D-Texas and we are all hoping that it doesn’t put a damper on either the Longhorns or the Bobcats. Meanwhile, Texas A&M is playing Arkansas in Arlington – one of those “neutral site” games.

With 37 days to go until the election, we are all looking for a “neutral site.”

Have a great weekend.

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

Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.

Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. The countdown to the November election continues—45 days to go. There are some big wins as well as some colossal losers to report this week. Here’s who made the list:

Winner: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott

Gov. Abbott declared war on the brutal and murderous Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, this week promising to bring the full force of Texas government on gang members. He went to El Paso, where many of the gang members are concentrated, and promised to use the courts and enhanced criminal penalties that came with the passage of Senate Bill 4 last year to keep the dangerous gang members behind bars for a long time. More than 3,000 Venezuelans have migrated into Texas illegally since 2021, and 200 are currently wanted by the authorities.

Incredibly, the mainstream media’s response to the Venezuelan crime in Texas, and elsewhere, is to insist that it has been exaggerated by Republicans, even though the feds have also declared Tren De Aragua a transnational criminal organization. Abbott changed the national conversation on immigration when he bused illegal migrants from the border to so-called “sanctuary cities” so the rest of the country could see the impact of massive immigration on communities and crime first-hand. His decision to focus on the ruthless gang activity is also likely to shift the narrative.

Winner: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Following the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Florida last week, DeSantis announced that his state will also investigate the attempted shooting. DeSantis promised an investigation that will be transparent, saying federal officials have “clammed up” on the on-going investigation of the Trump assassination attempt in Pennsylvania—but he will do better.

The federal investigations following both the assassination attempts on Trump have been sluggish and murky. It is a good bet that the free state of Florida will be more aggressive in its pursuit of the facts.

Loser: Trans Agenda in Texas

The National Republican Congressional Committee launched ads this week targeting South Texas Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, for his congressional votes in support of legislation allowing men to use women’s restrooms and letting men who think they are women play in women’s sports. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz went after his opponent, Rep. Colin Allred, with new ads for voting the same way. Both Democrats waived off the charges against them, suggesting, in a Kamala Harris-kind of way that voters want to talk about bread-and-butter issues like inflation and jobs, not trans issues.

They are likely right about that, but that does not mean Texas voters are willing to overlook the Democrats’ ongoing efforts to normalize the aggressive transgender agenda which includes allowing children to receive dangerous cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers and even unnecessary castrations and mastectomies while calling it “gender affirming care.”

Democrats try to pretend this is a civil rights issue—the legislation Gonzalez and Allred supported was called the “Equality Act” —but it has nothing to do with gay rights. The majority of Texas voters oppose every aspect of the transgender agenda, from open bathrooms to the attack on women’s sports. Allred and Gonzalez are both saying that their positions are being misrepresented in the campaign ads, but they voted with the Democrats on the trans agenda and Republicans are right to hold them accountable for it.

Loser: Colin Allred

Colin Allred made another Kamala Harris-like move this week when he first proudly posted that he had been endorsed by an anti-fracking group, the National Resources Defense Council, and then pulled the announcement down and announced that he, like Harris, has supported fracking all along.

With only 45 days to go until the election, Democrats believe they can pretend that it wasn’t the Biden-Harris Administration that cut back almost all drilling leases on federal lands, canceled the Keystone Pipeline, drained the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and heaped tons of production-killing regulation on the oil and gas industry. Climate change zealotry is a core belief for Democrats and they will not back away from their war on fossil fuels once the election is over. They are only pretending.

Winner: TEA Commissioner Mike Morath

Morath told the Senate Higher Education Committee that week that he believes students should be banned from carrying cellphones at school. Noting that the latest data shows that only 41% of Texas students can do basic math, Morath believes the distraction of cellphones is harmful to student progress.

Tons of data indicates that cellphones have a negative impact on kids ,and giving them up during school hours is not as draconian as taking them away all together, which is what many experts recommend. Some Texas districts have already banned cell phones, but they must overcome blowback from many parents who believe the phones are essential for monitoring their children’s activities throughout the day. The Legislature will debate whether to impose a statewide ban or let the districts decide, but it is important that Education Commissioner Morath put this on the table.

Winner: Trump’s Teamsters “Endorsement”

When the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced this week that it would not endorse Democrat Kamala Harris’ presidential bid, it was a victory for former President Trump, even though they didn’t endorse him either. The Teamsters released internal voting data showing almost 60% of their members are supporting Trump.

The Teamsters have endorsed every Democrat presidential candidate since 1996. When Teamsters president Sean O’Brien spoke to the Republican National Convention in July, it sent shockwaves through Democrats who were forced to acknowledge that Trump’s message resonates with working class voters. Harris’ campaign has fought back with its “White Dudes for Kamala” groups, but so far polling does not indicate that working class men—the base of Trump’s support—is moving toward the Vice President.

Winner: David Axelrod

Perhaps that’s because Kamala just doesn’t sound authentic. But don’t take that from me. I have conservative bias. Harris mostly sounds unhinged to me whenever she talks. But a big guy on the Democrat team, David Axelrod, a former Obama advisor, said this week that Harris is having trouble gaining traction because when she talks about economics it “sounds like its flowing from a poll.”

So when you hear Harris talk and it sounds phony when she says she was raised in a middle-class family and just wants to make life better for working people, it’s not just you. Apparently, she even sounds like a phony to Democrats.

Winner: Patrick Mahomes

Following the hoopla over Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Harris for President, it is notable that Kansas City Chiefs Quarterback (and former Texas Tech star) Patrick Mahomes said he would use his platform to encourage people to do their own research and vote. Humility among celebrities is rare these days and it is refreshing that Mahomes does not believe that his back-to-back Super Bowl wins gives him any special political insight that he should share with voters.

Loser: Texas Commuters

Next time you are stuck at a railroad crossing for what seems like hours, know that you are having what is, in many ways, a distinctly Texas experience. A report in the Wall Street Journal this week revealed that Texas is hosting far more so-called “monster trains” —some of which are three miles long—than any other state in the country.

Texas reported 8,000 blocked railroad crossings in the past year. No other state is even close to that number. Illinois, which ranks second, had about 1,600 blocked railroad crossings a year.

The good news is that the long freight trains are a sign of Texas strong economy. They are largely carrying cargo out of our ports on the Gulf. The bad news, of course, is that it can take forever to get anywhere.

Winner – Texas Football

After Week 3 in college football season, UT’s football team made it to the No. 1 spot and Texas A&M is back in the top 25. Arch Manning will start tomorrow for UT against Louisiana-Monroe while Quinn Ewers recovers from a strained muscle. Texas A&M plays Bowling Green and Texas Tech goes up against Arizona State. Looks like it’s going to be a good day for it.

Have a great weekend.

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

Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.

Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.