Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. With the Super Bowl looming on Sunday and Texas’ primary election less than a month away, here’s who made the list:
WINNER: Compared to What?
Monday looked like the start of a pretty bad week for conservatives, Republicans and other thinking people. Rioting against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minnesota and across the country threatened President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, and all kinds of polling showed Americans increasingly weighing their commitment to a secure border with their rejection of the use of deadly force against people who oppose it. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and Border Czar Tom Homan, the temperature has dropped dramatically and many of the battles have moved over to Congress via budgeting votes. But riots and protests continue nationwide and, as the president himself said this week, nobody is happy.
This comes on top of the special election in Tarrant County that became national news on Saturday when a ruby red state senate seat flipped blue, giving hope to the perpetually hopeless Texas Democrats. But in assessing how all this will play out politically, it’s important to employ the one political rule that does not change: The only relevant question is, “compared to what?”
When you ask that question, things look much better for the right.
Currently, the top contender for the Democrat nomination for president in 2028 is California Gov. Gavin Newsom —the same Gavin Newsom who has taken his state from budget surpluses to deficits and virtual bankruptcy. His catastrophic mismanagement of California’s forests resulted in the bigger and hotter fires that destroyed entire communities in the most beautiful part of the state. Now the state’s onerous regulations are blocking any meaningful rebuilding. California’s energy costs are astronomical and its grid is unreliable. They spend billions on homelessness strategies that have had no impact beyond changing the term “homeless” to “unhoused persons.” And yet, according to the betting markets right now, Newsom is far and away the front runner for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2028.
Happily, the bookies go even farther and ask the “compared to what” question, which leads them to say that, if the election were held today, it would be very close but Vice President J.D. Vance would defeat Newsom.
LOSER: State Rep. James Talarico (Compared to what in Texas)
Meanwhile, in Texas, State Rep. James Talarico, who is running for the Democrat nomination for the U.S. Senate, is the biggest political loser of the week. Talarico ran into a virtual buzz saw after a Democrat podcaster reported that he referred to former Rep. Colin Allred, who ran for the U.S. Senate against Sen. Ted Cruz last cycle, as a “mediocre black man.” Stopping just short of calling Talarico a racist, Allred promptly endorsed Talarico’s opponent, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, saying, “this man should not be our nominee for United States Senate.”
It’s all here in a Washington Post article entitled “Texas Democrats Taste Victory, then Turn on Each Other.” Talarico says he didn’t say it or at least that it isn’t as bad as it sounds, but Democrats don’t seem to be paying attention.
If that wasn’t enough, Talarico appeared on ABC’s “The View” and told the ladies that he’d missed a lot of votes in the Texas House because he’d left the state to bust the quorum last year. Of course, here in Texas, everyone knew that’s a big fat lie. When there’s no quorum, there are no votes.
The Dallas Morning News editorial board called out the Democrats for identity politics and fighting among themselves, which is hysterical since identity politics is the No. 1 plank in the Democrat Party platform. But the Morning News may have had the best line of the week when it warned that Texas voters will see the Democrat infighting as “a better fit for the faculty lounge at Berkeley than for public office in Texas.”
LOSER: ‘Stolen Land’ at the Grammys
One of the advantages kids who go to public school in Texas will have as a result of the Bluebonnet Curriculum is that if they ever get famous and win a Grammy or an Oscar, they won’t go to the award show and say something stupid like Billie Eilish’s dumb quip this week, “no one is illegal on stolen land.”
Any educated person knows that pretty much all the land in the world is “stolen land.” Take England, which was Celtic before the Romans came about 40 AD. Lots of Roman walls are still standing over there. No one has proposed tearing down those historic marvels and charging the Romans with being land stealers. After the Romans left, the Anglo-Saxons ran the show before William the Conqueror arrived with the Normans in 1066. Lots of people accused William of “stealing land” at the time, but he defeated them, which sort of explains why Charles is now the King of England.
How far back should we go in prosecuting for “stolen land?”
The Romans came to the British Isles only a few years after Christ’s crucifixion, and were there for over 400 years. That seems like a pretty strong claim. Should Britain give England back to the Italians? Of course, the Celts were there first, except for whoever it was that built Stonehenge — if we figure that out, does England belong to them? The country is named after the Angles, which could count for something, although the Saxons might also sue since they somehow got lost in the naming rights. You get the point.
LOSER: What’s Going on in Wylie
Reports from Wylie, a suburb of Dallas, revealed this week that a group called “Why Islam” was handing out Qurans, hijabs and pamphlets on Sharia law at the high school there.
The “Why Islam” action comes just a week after two large Texas school districts considered—and then rejected—proposals to use public school facilities for so-called “Islamic Games,” a sports program where only Muslim students could participate. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is a winner for issuing an interim charge last week directing lawmakers to prevent the establishment of Sharia law in Texas. The latest news coming out of Wylie is that a teacher is on administrative leave for inviting people on campus without approval, but many questions remain, the biggest being “Why Islam?”
LOSER: Public School Students Walking Out of Classes in Austin
Public school students—even elementary and middle school students—have been participating in protests against ICE all over Texas. Among the first school systems to release students to protest was Austin ISD, where it is increasingly clear that teachers, rather than students, were the instigators. For an eyewitness account of what happened in Austin, read my colleague, Brian Phillips’ report of how it all came down last week when the busy city center was flooded by children carrying protests signs. The Texas Education Agency is investigating.
WINNER: Texas A&M Ends Women & Gender Studies Degrees
Some professors at Texas A&M issued a letter this week wailing and gnashing their teeth because the Board of Regents decided to stop giving a BS and BA degree in women’s and gender studies. You won’t believe what they said. In case you missed it, I wrote all about it here.
WINNER: Women’s Basketball
The No. 4 ranked Lady Longhorns won the Red River Shootout with Oklahoma last weekend in a great game. (I know, we are not supposed to call them the Lady Longhorns, but I never really got how “lady” became a bad word). Anyway, UT is the only Texas women’s team in the top 10, although TCU, Baylor and Texas Tech are in the top 25. The University of Houston men are ranked No. 8 and Texas Tech is No. 13. They are all playing this weekend.
SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
No way to call winners and losers on Super Bowl Sunday yet. Will Bad Bunny give Americans one more reason to loathe the NFL, or will he follow the advice of Commissioner Roger Goodell and use the giant platform to unite people? Trump says he’ll be watching Kid Rock, who will be streaming at the same time on Turning Point USA’s livestream and a bunch of other YouTube channels. Can they compete? Some are asking the same thing about New England. The Seahawks are the heavy favorite, but who knows. Let’s just hope nobody mentions “stolen land.”
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.