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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