Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. We are now sliding down the final 10 day countdown to Election Day as we try to discern what the long lines of people standing outside polling locations—at least where I live in San Antonio—are really thinking. As the final battle rages, here’s who made the list this week:
Winner: So far, GOP Early Voters
Derek Ryan is the Texas guy who analyzes who votes in Texas elections. He’s not a pollster or a spin guy, he just looks at who has actually voted and links them to their primary voting history. Ryan is a Republican but he is respected by both sides and, amazingly, even the Texas media, which spends lots of time every four years pushing the narrative that Texas is turning blue, or Texas will be turning blue, or, Texas is probably already blue, but Republicans won’t let the “real people” vote. Ryan doesn’t bother with any of that. He just does the math. His latest report reveals that 2,833,623 Texans voted in the first three days of Early Voting.
And 1,102,052 of those voters are people who have previously only voted in Republican primary elections. Another 715,180 are people who have only voted in Democrat primaries. And 63,460 additional voters are people who most recently voted in a Republican primary but have also voted in Democrat primaries at some point in their voting lives. That’s compared to 33,847 voters who are Democrats with the same mixed primary record. If you believe the adage that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, you can draw conclusions from those numbers, as long as you remember that an adage is not a fact.
Ryan reports that almost a million other Texans who only vote in General Elections, have voted in both Democrat and Republican primaries or have no voting history at all, also cast their ballots in the first three days. That’s what we know. Everything else is speculation. You can sign up for Ryan’s Early Voting reports here.
Loser: Harris’ Trip to Texas
I frequently caution conservatives against thinking that Democrats’ are politically stupid, just because their policy positions are so often asinine. However, as Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick succinctly pointed out yesterday, the decision by Vice President Kamala Harris to spend one of the final days of her campaign in Texas, when she’s sinking in swing states, is one of the “dumbest political decisions I’ve ever seen.” Patrick rightly pointed out that Harris has no chance of winning Texas or boosting Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Colin Allred to victory over U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, particularly after Allred’s steadfast support for the transgender agenda has been revealed.
Apparently the vice president has forgotten that Texas is ground zero for the over 10 million illegal aliens who have crossed the border on her watch. Since she’s only been to El Paso and Arizona, she may not realize that Texas a state with a 1,254 miles long border with Mexico.
As for bringing Beyoncé to the stage in Houston to help her campaign, it is unlikely it will help Harris and may hurt the big star herself. Just look at another loser this week, Taylor Swift. Despite the fanfare when Swift’s endorsement of Harris was announced, her unfavorable ratings have increased 20 points among Republicans since she declared her support for the vice president. Swift has learned the “Bud Light,” lesson—don’t ‘dis your audience. Swift’s endorsement of Harris barely even raises her popularity among Democrats. She got about 5 points. It is unlikely Beyoncé will have any impact on the election, either.
Beyond dragging celebrities to the stage to endorse her, it is is also tough to figure out why even Democrats are asking why Harris won’t simply answer direct questions about the border, the economy, crime, or anything, really. The vice president’s Town Hall on CNN this week has been panned across the board by her own side with former Obama advisor David Axelrod calling it a trip to “word salad city.”
Winner: Gov. Greg Abbott Takes on Tren De Aragua
When asked about Harris’ visit to the Lone Star State, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suggested she spend her time in Texas declaring the Venezuelan gang, Tren De Aragua, a foreign terrorist organization, as he has done. Abbott notes that Harris is visiting Houston, where 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was raped and murdered by two Tren de Aragua gang members in June. Although Nungaray’s murderer was released on her watch, Harris has yet to apologize to her family or the other victims of violent crimes perpetrated by criminal illegal aliens. Abbott is right to press her on this outrageous omission every moment she is here.
Loser: DEI in the Military
Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Colin Allred helped shine a light on the problems with the United States military when it was revealed that he had just signed a letter asking Republicans to remove restrictions in the National Defense Reauthorization Act that would have prohibited the military from performing sex change operations on soldiers and allowing pride flags and drag shows on military bases. A Wall Street Journal op-ed this morning explains how such woke, DEI policies are fueling the decline in military enlistment.
We know that 80% of people who volunteer to serve in the military have family members who also served. But a new survey shows that many military family members no longer recommend that others join up—it’s down almost 20 points. Biden-Harris Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is pushing Biden’s order to embed DEI throughout the ranks of every branch of service, making diversity officially more important than competence, bravery or leadership.
Winner: City of Odessa Frees Women’s Restrooms
Striking a blow for women’s rights and security, the city of Odessa passed an ordinance this week that prohibits individuals from entering the restrooms of the opposite sex. We have fought this war before but Texans now have a clear understanding of the impact of opening women’s restrooms to everyone, and I predict Odessa will not be the only city that weighs in on the side of privacy for women and girls.
You gotta love how the Texas Tribune covered the issue. They put out a news story with the headline: “Odessa bans transgender people from using restrooms that don’t match sex assigned at birth.” So, before you even read the report that women in Odessa won’t have to worry about men coming in their restrooms, you must accept the theory, right there on the page in big baby blacks, that “sex is assigned at birth.” That’s quite a concept to swallow, particularly for anyone who has read a biology book.
Loser: University of Texas, Matthew McConaughey and those bottles on Texas Memorial Field
I am a big fan of Matthew McConaughey, but he was not nearly strong enough in admonishing his fellow Longhorn fans after the Georgia game on Saturday. “Not cool,” doesn’t begin to describe their move to throw bottles and trash on the field at Texas Memorial Stadium to protest a referee’s call. It was very badly done, especially for the team that, until late last Saturday, was ranked number one in the nation. No excuse will suffice.
UT has “Texas” in its name. Texas taxpayers pay for the flag ship school. Because of that, when you are on national television, you are representing the entire state, even Texans who proudly didn’t go to UT. Texas is a symbol of everything that is right about America and our great football teams are one of the ways we show the world who we are. Consequently, folks from the University of Texas can’t behave like a bunch of hockey fans from Saskatoon. Again, badly done.
UT has promised to track down the perpetrators and fine them for their offenses. Perhaps they should deploy the people who picked up the January 6 protesters. They got hundreds of those people using mostly using blurry clips from personal iPhones. The bad Longhorn fans were all on national TV. Should be easier.
Loser: Chicago is most rat infested city in the country.
Chicago was once again named the most rat infested city by Orkin, the pest control company. Chicago has now held the title for a decade. Don’t want to dwell on this yucky fact, but do want to note that no Republican-run city is on the top 10 list of rat-filled towns and no Texas city is in the top 20. Just saying.
Loser: Men Coming for Women’s Golf
Now there are a total of five women’s volleyball teams in the Mountain West that have forfeited their games rather than play San Jose State, whose team includes a man who thinks he’s a woman. The University of Nevada is the latest to bow out despite the administrators’ insistence that the game go on. The players didn’t back down, saying they “refuse[d] to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes” so despite the virtue signals of Nevada University bureaucrats they ultimately had to withdraw because they didn’t have a team.
That same injustice is threatening professional women’s golf. Now, 275 golfers in the LPGA have sent a letter to the LPGA brass saying they don’t want to play against men. This follows the inclusion of Hailey Davidson, a man who says he’s a woman, who is poised to qualify for the LPGA tour, beating out a woman for a coveted spot. The LPGA has developed “gender policies” that allow biological men to compete against women if they have undergone gender reassignment surgery. However, like in Nevada, it appears the folks in charge of the LPGA did not consult with the women who actually play golf before they changed the rules. LPGA players should take the same path as the volleyball players at the University of Nevada and simply take their sticks and walk away.
Another Big Game Day
Texas plays giant-killer Vanderbilt in Nashville tomorrow at 3:15 p.m. and Texas A&M will play LSU tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. Hopefully, no fines will result.
Have a great weekend!
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
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