Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Today is the last day of Early Voting, so we are now beginning the endgame. So far, 6.2 million Texans had cast their ballots as of Wednesday and the GOP deficit has dwindled to 56,000—half of what it was last week. Those numbers don’t show winners and losers, of course, so here’s who made the list:

WINNER: USA Swamping World in AI Computing

The U.S. is locked into an ongoing battle with China over artificial intelligence (AI), but a new report released this week shows that the U.S. is currently in the lead. America currently has over 70% of the world’s AI computing — the processing power that makes AI work. That means we’ve got the chips, the means of producing more chips and the capital investment to make that happen. China, at a little over 10%, is not even close — and Europe isn’t really in the game.

Texas Tech recently announced a partnership with NVIDIA, the largest chip maker in the world, to “deploy next-generation accelerated computing infrastructure” on the Red Raider campus in Lubbock. Meanwhile, using their usual “head in the sand” strategy, Canada invited the European Union over to Montreal yesterday to try to talk them into letting the Canadians join — so Canada will retain its spot on the losers list.

WINNER: Nancy Pelosi — Mamdani and El Sayed are “just wrong.”

I am not sure if former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a first time winner in this space, but she made the list this week for clearly condemning the frequent anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments of Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Pelosi was on a podcast called “On Brand,” where the host provided quotes of both the Democratic Socialists refusing to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Pelosi called that “wrong,” and said it did not reflect the position of the Democrats in Congress. Pelosi distanced herself from El-Sayed, noting he hasn’t actually been elected, and said bluntly that she did not agree with Mayor Mamdani. She also said other House members should not tolerate anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views from their colleagues in Congress (which would be a big change). It is not often we hear much sanity coming from Democrats in general, and Pelosi in particular, but it is worth noting that she took a stand.

LOSER: Talarico and the Classrooms Lie

Going down to the wire, candidates are throwing everything they’ve got into whatever race they are running, so it was great to see that the New York Times (really) called out Texas Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico this week for a whopper. While on the campaign trail, Talarico whined that when he taught in public school in Texas, his classroom had over 45 students, several of whom didn’t have desks and had to sit on radiators. He even claimed the experience was so awful that it moved him to run for office. The Times checked with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and learned that it wasn’t true — Talarico never taught a class with more than 30 students.

Texas Democrats frequently make up stories about the dire straits of Texas public schools, always ignoring the billions of dollars spent on administrative bloat and astronomical superintendents salaries. If you are in the mood for some facts about our public schools, my TPPF colleagues, Mandy Drogin and James Quintero lay out some of the most outrageous truths HERE.

LOSER: Blue City Rain Forecasts

It goes without saying that conservatives win elections on merit — more people agree with principled, common-sense policies than don’t. However, in the fog of the war that is the current mid-term election, the forces of darkness are strong and confusion can sometimes obscure the light. It is critical to use every tool you have.

That’s why many conservatives are praying for rain on Election Day. Traditionally, Democrat voters have proven more likely to be deterred by bad weather. The fact that three of the Lone Star State’s big blue cities—Dallas, Austin and San Antonio—are bracing for “severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall” next Tuesday is good news.

While Democrat turnout far exceeded the GOP in the first week of early voting, Republicans are closing the gap in the second week, so the Election Day turnout could be decisive.

WINNER: Two States Put Saving Girls Sports on the Ballot

Texas has rightfully outlawed boys playing in girls sports and gender mutilating surgeries for children, both of which are allowed in most Democrat-controlled states. But Washington state and Colorado have put boys playing in girls sports on the ballot for next Tuesday, and Washington Democrats are panicked. Using big scare tactics, they are telling voters that every girl will have to be examined before every game — something that doesn’t happen in Texas and other states where boys are already prohibited from playing in girls sports. Colorado is also voting on whether to ban gender mutilating sex change surgeries. Polling shows that virtually nobody in either party supports either one of these things, but we’ll see how the voting turns out.

Loser: Dirty Tricks in Alaska

The story of how the Alaska Democrats found a guy with the same name as the Republican U.S. senator in Alaska, Dan Sullivan, to run against him would make a great movie. Apparently, former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, the Democrat who is challenging Sullivan, wanted to increase her odds — or at least her team wanted to increase her odds — so they recruited another man with the same name as her opponent and got him to file for the election. Predictably, voters are confused.

The U.S. Dept. of Justice is investigating and President Donald Trump is threatening to get the race thrown out if Peltola wins. Yesterday, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is also a Republican, also announced an investigation, which means Alaska will be on everybody’s watch list on Election Night. You can’t blame Alaska’s awful “jungle primary” system for making this possible, but it didn’t help.

WINNER: Halloween Shout Out to America

Halloween is tomorrow, so I want to do my annual shout-out regarding the Salem Witch Trials, which occurred in the summer of 1694.

Every year at Halloween, some lefty trots out the Salem Witch Trials as proof that America was rotten from the beginning, but just the opposite is true. When you look at what happened in Salem and compare it to the rest of the world, it was already clear that America was an exceptional place.

The numbers tell the story: In the 17th and 18th centuries, at least 12,000 women were executed for witchcraft in Europe and some estimates are much higher. During that same time period, the body count in America was 35, including the 19 women who were executed at Salem. That doesn’t make any of it right, of course, but it does provide perspective. If you were a woman, or even a witch, during that time, the safest place in the world to be was America. To read my entire article on the Salem witch trials, click here.

WINNER: Pope Votes by Mail

Pope Leo XIV made history this week when he became the first Pope to vote in an American election. He cast his ballot by mail in Illinois, where he is registered. In fact, Robert Francis Prevost, his name before he became Pope Leo, has been voting by mail since 2012.

We are all proud that the pope, who was born on the South Side of Chicago, is an American and now we know he takes every aspect of his citizenship seriously. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Illinois doesn’t have “absentee ballots,” and any registered voter can vote by mail if they want to. There’s a federal law governing military personnel who are serving overseas, so they don’t lose their voting rights, but this is a call by the state of Illinois, which is not challenging the Holy Father.

WINNERS: Brewers, Longhorns and Cougars

Unless you were watching closely, it was easy to miss Milwaukee winning the World Series in the middle of the week. They defeated Tampa Bay in five games to take home the first championship in their history.

Meanwhile, after Week 8 of college football, the No. 11 ranked Texas Longhorns had sort of a comeback after a solid defeat over Ole Miss. Unfortunately, Texas Tech is no longer undefeated after their tragic loss to Cincinnati. The Red Raiders are now ranked No. 13.The other Texas team in the top 25, the University of Houston, plays Cincinnati on Saturday. The Longhorns face Mississippi State and Tech will play Arizona tomorrow. Texas A&M is off this week. I believe the college football reformers should also consider outlawing bye weeks—nothing good ever comes from them.

Have a great weekend!

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

If you were forwarded this email, you can sign up to receive it every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress