DALLAS (Gray DC) – The Republican National Committee’s first-ever midterm election convention is set to begin in Dallas this week, dubbing it a “Trump-a-palooza,” to try to turn out more GOP voters out in November.
The convention differs from typical RNC conventions, which are usually held only in presidential election years to nominate a candidate and conduct party business. But this week’s event is focused on messaging, with President Donald Trump at the center of it.
“President Trump is no stranger to throwing out the playbook and trying something new to defy political history,” said Zach Kraft, RNC Dallas spokesman. “And so that’s why he wanted to do this first of his time midterm convention. Get all of America to focus in and really see what’s on the ballot this November.”
The two-day convention aims to highlight the party’s recent achievements in Washington while also contrasting the GOP’s party vision with Democrat’s plans.
Dozens of leaders and candidates are scheduled to speak about different themes on Wednesday and Thursday, including Vice President JD Vance and President Trump.
Ahead of the convention, Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) said the event is all about energizing voters.
“It’s a great time to be able to talk about messaging and what we’ve done and why it is so vitally important we have support going in to November,” Van Duyne said.
Prominent speeches at the convention will showcase the One Big Beautiful Bill tax cuts, domestic manufacturing, border enforcement efforts, trade and more.
A number of Democrats are also set to visit Dallas this week, to counter GOP programming, including Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Lone Star State U.S. Senate candidate. State Rep James Talarico.
Angelo Fernández Hernández, Democratic National Committee spokesperson, said the convention will highlight Trump’s failures.
“What we’ll see this week from the Republican convention in Dallas is a celebration of everything that Trump has failed at,” Fernández Hernández said. “He said he would bring costs down. Costs are going up. He said he would end forever wars. We are now in another quagmire in the Middle East.”
While the event is set to focus heavily on President Trump, it comes as his approval rating sits around 33%, according to a recent Ipsos poll.
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