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A “Welcome to Dallas” video plays in Victory Plaza ahead of the GOP’s convention-style rally Sept. 9-10 at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2013 President Donald Trump<\/a> says next week\u2019s Dallas convention will be aimed at helping Republicans win roughly 35 races that could determine control of Congress, with Ken Paxton\u2019s Senate contest<\/a> among the biggest.<\/p>\n Trump said the first-of-its-kind GOP midterm gathering<\/a> is intended to generate the attention, enthusiasm and party unity normally associated with a presidential nominating convention.<\/p>\n \u201cThe midterms, people talk about it, it’s very important, but there’s no convention,\u201d Trump recalled telling others. \u201cWhy don’t we have a convention?\u00a0You could call it a midterm convention. I wouldn’t use the term \u2018mini convention\u2019 because it’s really not that mini . . . It’s going to be big stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n His remarks, made in an episode of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick\u2019s<\/a> podcast released Wednesday, were Trump\u2019s most extensive yet about the Sept. 9-10 event at American Airlines Center, home of the Dallas Mavericks and what Trump called a \u201cgreat basketball arena.\u201d<\/p>\n He also hailed the support of Miriam\u00a0Adelson<\/a>, the billionaire Mavericks owner and a major Trump donor<\/a>.<\/p>\n Organizers say the convention-style rally is expected to draw 20,000 attendees for two days of speeches and festivities. Anti-Trump protesters also are planning demonstrations, although authorities have not said if they will be allowed near the arena.<\/p>\n Trump estimated that Republican control of Congress rests on the outcome of about 30 House contests and five Senate races.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump says he proposed a midterm convention to bring the GOP the attention and unity before the November elections.<\/p>\n Francisco Seco\/Associated Press<\/p>\n One of the biggest, he said, is the Texas Senate race between Paxton, the Republican attorney general, and Democrat James Talarico<\/a>, a state representative from Austin.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThe bottom line is he was a phenomenal attorney general,\u201d Trump said of\u00a0Paxton. \u201cSome people don’t like things about him, but he was the best there is.\u201d<\/p>\n Targeting Texas<\/p>\n He echoed Republican attacks on Talarico as too liberal for Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cHe will never vote for Texas,\u201d Trump said of\u00a0Talarico. \u201cHe\u2019ll vote for ideology that no person from Texas wants.\u201d<\/p>\n Talarico has dismissed such attacks as a Republican playbook of \u201cdistraction and division,\u201d saying they are intended to divert attention from Paxton\u2019s legal and ethical controversies.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Talarico is campaigning on affordability and rooting out corruption. Many of his positive ads feature his teaching background, family and concerns about inflation.<\/p>\n He has far outpaced\u00a0Paxton in fundraising<\/a> and TV ad spending since the attorney general defeated longtime Sen. John Cornyn<\/a> in the Republican runoff in May.<\/p>\n Patrick, a fellow Republican, thanked the president for bringing the convention to Dallas as the two reminisced about a Trump rally at the American Airlines Center early in his 2016 presidential run.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody said, \u2018Wow, something\u2019s going on here, that arena is packed,\u2019\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n Workers prepare for the upcoming Republican National Convention at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, Monday, August 31, 2026.<\/p>\n Anja Schlein\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Previewing his message for the convention, Trump talked up his administration\u2019s policies on trade and prescription drug prices and highlighted the package of GOP priorities known as the Big Beautiful Bill.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Trump also bragged about his support in Texas, including among Hispanic voters, saying his administration has secured the border and created jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just have to get that word out as Republicans,\u201d Trump told Patrick. \u201cWe have to get you, and we have to get the governor, and we have to get Ken, we have to get you guys elected.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A “Welcome to Dallas” video plays in Victory Plaza ahead of the GOP’s convention-style rally Sept. 9-10 at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,140185,101234,104393,91243,91241],"class_list":["post-424169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-james-talarico","tag-tp-congress","tag-tp-dan-patrick","tag-tp-donald-trump","tag-tp-ken-paxton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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