Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. President Donald Trump completed his 200th day in office yesterday and now that we are in August, we can officially begin the countdown to college football season—Week Zero is on Aug. 23 and the Texas-Ohio State game is slated for Aug. 30. Here’s who made the list:
LOSERS: Another Swing and a Miss for Texas House Democrats
Almost everybody, including the recently deposed Stephen Colbert, have pointed out the irony of Texas House Democrats fleeing to states where Democrats have gerrymandered Republicans out of almost a dozen congressional seats because they have drawn the redistricting maps in their favor.
In 2024, 43% of New Yorkers voted Republican but only 36% of their Congressional seats favor the GOP, and even though a third of Massachusetts voters chose Trump over Harris, the Baked Bean State doesn’t have any Republicans in Congress. In Illinois, where most of the Texas Democrats are hanging out, almost half of voters, 44%, voted Republican but only 17% of their Congressional representatives are in GOP majority districts. Texas Democrats didn’t go to California, where 38% of voters chose Trump, but only 17% of their congressional delegation is Republican.
It is absolutely hypocritical, but that’s the point of redistricting. The party that wins the election gets to draw the map.
The bigger hypocrisy for the Democrats in the Texas House is that they all insist they left the state to take a stand for their constituents, but on most issues, they don’t even represent what Texas Democrats want.
Texas House Democrats carried the water for the teachers unions and fought school choice every step of the way, even though a majority of Texans, including Democrats, support it.
And 40 Texas House Democrats voted against bail reform, blocking the two-thirds majority needed to immediately make it law to deny bail to repeat violent offenders—an issue that over 80% of Texans support. Texas House Democrats also filibustered the final passage of Senate Bill 12, to remove “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) programs in public schools even after TPPF polling on DEI found that, again, almost 80 percent of Texans—Democrats, Republicans, African-Americans, Hispanics and Anglos—believe all students should be treated the same, regardless of race or ethnicity.
Gov. Greg Abbott is a winner for targeting Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, chair of the House Democrat caucus and ringleader of the quorum bust. Remember, it was Wu who called his Republican House colleagues “monsters” in the SB 12 (DEI in public schools) debate. In an outrageous monologue, Wu charged that GOP House members had not only bullied kids who were different from them when they were in high school but also teach their own children to bully kids today. Unbelievable, right? You can watch the whole debate here—start the replay at 3:42.
Wu and his colleagues seem to have no idea who the people of Texas are or what they think.
WINNER: Texans Support Voter ID, too
The last time Texas Democrats left the state in 2021, they were fighting the Election Protection Act, which, among other things, required that mail-in voters provide the same identification when they vote as those who show up in person. Former President Joe Biden sued the state, but this week, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Texas’ favor and upheld Texas law that requires those who cast their ballots by mail to put their driver’s license number or a portion of their Social Security number on their ballot before they mail it in.
Continuing the battle in court, Democrats had insisted that requiring voters to provide identification violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but the Court didn’t buy it. Neither do most Texans, including Democrats, who support being required to provide an ID before you can vote by a margin of 3 to 1.
WINNERS: Red States Say No to Junk Food for SNAP Recipients
Texas is one of 11 red states that is barring the purchase of candy and sugary drinks with funds supplied to the needy by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The other states are Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia. Colorado is not a red state, but it is also changing its rules for SNAP in order to uphold its reputation as one of the healthiest states in the nation.
Since 75% of Americans are overweight or obese, you may wonder why this didn’t happen sooner and why Red States are acting first. Well, according to progressives who oppose the ban, prohibiting the purchase of junk food with SNAP funds doesn’t work because nobody can really say what kinds of foods are “bad” for us. Huh? Is there some kind of emerging research indicating that Coke and Snickers bars increase life spans?
Opponents also insist that banning junk food will force people to buy candy and soda with other funds. Not sure why that’s bad. Maybe they will buy less.
But the big reason progressives oppose the junk food ban is because they say it “punishes the poor,” “shaming people” for what they eat. So for progressives, heart disease and diabetes are preferable to being embarrassed.
LOSER: Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced this week that he is about to get the green light to build a nuclear power plant on the moon. Is that a good idea? I don’t know and I’m pretty sure Duffy doesn’t either. The problem is that Duffy is not just running the Department of Transportation, he is also serving as interim NASA Administrator and clearly somebody there told him it was really urgent that we get back to the moon, throw up a power plant and get the lights on so we can beat China.
We are all on board for beating China wherever we can, but even Duffy admits he’s not finished fixing Newark Airport yet, and it is pretty clear the entire air traffic control system needs a serious upgrade.
We’ve got the train mess in California, and while Duffy’s not responsible for I-35 between San Antonio and Austin, and I-10 in every direction around Houston, they are reminders that Americans are spending almost 50 hours a week in traffic and it is costing us billions in productivity. Someone needs to be focused on making American transportation great again. Duffy needs to tell President Trump that he doesn’t have time to run NASA.
Besides, if we need a nuclear power plant on the moon, isn’t that something Elon should do?
LOSER: Harvard’s partnership with the CCP
As if there were not already enough reasons to be angry at Harvard, this week we learned from congressional investigators that Harvard’s Kennedy School has a collaborative relationship with the Chinese Executive Leadership Academy Pudong, which is controlled by one of the most powerful bodies within the Chinese Communist Party.
The investigators include Rep. Elise Stefanik, D-NY, who attended Harvard and helped expose the anti-Semitism of the notorious Ivy League presidents in 2023 who would not say that threatening Jewish students was in conflict with their respective universities’ codes of conduct.
Stefanik and her House colleagues found that when the Chinese Communist Party wants leadership training, their go-to is Harvard. It is not clear how many students from China involved in this leadership training are currently on the Harvard campus.
Harvard continues to insist it has the moral high ground in its battle with the Trump administration, who is suing it over its failure to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism, its use of race in recruitment and hiring and its refusal to provide information about foreign students on campus. This latest revelation about its relationship with the CCP is not going to make it easier.
LOSER: Does Warren Endorse Mamdani? You Betcha!
Speaking of Ivy League universities, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, who once got a teaching job at Harvard by claiming to be Native American, endorsed socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City this week.
If you wonder why Mamdani continues to persist in the news, it’s not just that Democrats are about to elect another big blue city mayor—we have those in Texas—but New York isn’t just any city. At 8.4 million people, the Big Apple is larger than 38 states—about the same size as Virginia. It’s over twice the size as Los Angeles, the country’s second largest city. If one of the big blue states was about to elect a socialist governor—or, as President Trump insists, an actual communist, it would be big news, even for Democrats.
None of that bothers Sen. Warren, (who represents a state that gerrymandered every Republican out of Congress…just saying). When asked if Mamdani reflects the future of the Democrat party, Warren said unequivocally, “You betcha!”
WINNER: Royal New Zealand Air Force
In case you missed the story of the New Zealand rescue of the American scientists from Antarctica, it was called “nothing less than heroic,” and is clearly a winner. One of the scientists was in urgent need of medical attention so the Kiwi pilots flew into the McMurdo Station in complete darkness, wearing night vision googles and braving below zero temperatures. Members of the U.S. Antarctic Project Winter Team had to create a runway on top of the ice so the plane could land. It took 20 hours. Here’s more footage. It is going to be a great movie.
WINNERS: Texas Tech & UT Austin
College football season starts in 15 days! The Red Raiders made big news this week when they landed linebacker LaDamion Guyton, the number one 2027 defensive recruit. Former Red Raider Patrick Mahomes gave Guyton a huge thumbs up.
Meanwhile, Arch Manning’s grandfather, Archie Manning, told Texas Monthly that he predicted Arch would skip the 2026 NFL draft and remain at UT. We’ll see. I find my own grandchildren pretty unpredictable, but perhaps it’s different in the Manning family.
Have a great weekend.
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
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