Collin County Young Republicans member Aidan Shull attended the Republican midterm convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, September 10, 2026.
Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News
Aidan Shull, 21, skipped his political science classes Thursday to see President Donald Trump. Cat Krankota, 17, put off studying for the SAT to protest him.
The two Gen Z Texans viewed Trump’s convention from opposite sides of the political divide last week, one inside the spectacle at American Airlines Center, the other outside of it.
Together, with strongly held beliefs, they offered a glimpse of how a new generation is finding its voice.
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Shull was seated beneath bright stage lights, as speaker after speaker took the stage before Trump’s closing address. In a neat suit with an American flag on his lapel, he snapped photos and applauded among hundreds of other Republicans.
“I’ve never seen Trump in person,” said Shull, who received a ticket from a family friend. “It’s an interesting story to tell people when I’m older.”
Booker T. Washington High School student Cat Krankota speaks during a rally against President Donald Trump outside Dallas City Hall on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in downtown Dallas.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
Across downtown, less than two miles away, Krankota waited in the humid air outside City Hall to speak to a rally organized to counter the Republican program. A raised-fist sticker on her black T-shirt read “Power to the People.”
The high school senior high-fived Beto O’Rourke, the former Democratic congressman from El Paso, before taking the stage.
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“I’m here because of my persistent hope and prayer that one day we won’t have to scream until our voices waver just to be heard. But that time has not come yet,” she told the crowd. “So let me hear y’all get loud!”
The contrasting scenes unfolded less than two months before the November midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake.
‘I’m in it now’
On the first night of the Republican midterm convention, Krankota was at theater practice.
During a rehearsal for high school’s production of Shrek the Musical, she and other crew members had 90 seconds to transform Fiona from human into a green ogre — painting the performer’s face, adding a prosthetic nose and coordinating a full costume change.
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Related: From sparkles to Stetsons, a look at GOP fashion at Trump’s Dallas convention
It was a different kind of teamwork Krankota described as her political breakout.
Earlier this year, she helped organize a walkout at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Krankota led hundreds of students left class and marched to Klyde Warren Park to protest federal immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
“The walkout was sort of my big ‘I’m in it now’ situation,” Krankota said.
She said she had long been interested in politics but became more involved partly through the example of her mother, criminal defense attorney Alison Grinter Allen, who won the Democratic nomination for judge of Dallas County’s 282nd District Court and faces no Republican opponent in November.
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Booker T. Washington High School student Cat Krankota speaks during a rally against President Donald Trump outside Dallas City Hall on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in downtown Dallas.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
To Krankota, political engagement means looking beyond your own circumstances. She urged young people on the political right to do the same.
“Don’t think that just because it isn’t you right now that you are safe from an oppressive regime,” she said.
‘Team America’
Shull had three choices as he ordered at the hotel bar of the Young Republicans “Victory Party” near the arena Wednesday night: “The Trump” whiskey and Diet Coke; the “America First” margarita; and the “Lake America” old fashioned.
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“Lake America” was the most popular drink. By the end of the night, tables were covered with empty glasses holding only soggy, discarded cherries.
Shull spent the day across the street inside the dark convention hall with others in the Young Republican National Federation, 20- and 30-something GOP members from chapters across the country. For the GOP’s Generation Z, the convention was two days of politics and partying.
Courtney Jackson (left), 31, of Canton, listens to Matthew Proper, 28, a city councilman in Gun Barrell City, as Young Republicans host an event at The W in Dallas during the Republican Convention on Wednesday, September 9, 2026.
Stewart F. House/The Dallas Morning News
Shull believes Trump “holds up the importance of what being a president is.” But he isn’t happy with every aspect of his presidency.
Average Americans should be able to afford to raise a family, pay for school and have a career, he said.
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“It’s a bad deal right now,” Shull said.
Shull joined the Collin County Young Republicans group to talk politics with people he relates to, in age and ideology.
He believes young Democrats are “misguided on what makes this country great.” But they are worried about the same things as Republicans — housing and jobs, which he called “the two biggest things that young people right now are stressed about.”
“It’s a different response to the same issues,” he said.
Related: Trump closes Republican midterm convention in Dallas with crowd pledge to vote
The GOP is not perfect, he said: Old-guard Republicans believe it’s their party and no one else’s, while young Republicans are more focused on results.
“There’s one way that things are thought about, and if you don’t stay within that, it’s like you’re not on the team, right?” he said. “But I’m on Team America. I’m not on Team Trump.”
As the convention ended Thursday night, Shull watched the floor of the arena fill with popping balloons as crews started clearing two days of revelry. He filed out of the AAC with thousands of others, spilling into the chaotic exodus from Victory Park to make his way home to McKinney.
Krankota was at home, studying for her SAT while FaceTiming her best friend attending college in California.