In my below coe the console.log fires, so the if statement is definitely passing. If I try to console.log() the CSS of $(this) I get undefined. I've done console.log($this) and it returns an object with outer HTML <span class="formState"></span>. I've had a few friends look at this and have done a lot of research but have come up short. 
<span class="formState"><?php echo $IRFormResults[$count];$count++ ?></span>
$(".formState").each(function() {
    if ($(this).text() == 'n/a') {
        console.log('Got an n/a');
        $(this).css('color:red');
    }
.formState {
    color: green;
    display: inline-block;
    min-width: 125px;
    margin-left: 10px;
    float:right;
}