Trump Announces Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas in September

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: New York Times

Trump Announces Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas in September

Parties normally hold conventions only in presidential years, but President Trump liked the idea of mobilizing Republicans this fall.


Dallas will be the site of Republican efforts to mobilize ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Desiree Rios for The New York Times

By Shane Goldmacher
https://www.nytimes.com/by/shane-goldmacher
June 30, 2026, 5:47 p.m. ET

President Trump announced on Tuesday that the Republican Party would hold an unusual midterm convention in September in Dallas as he seeks to mobilize his party before the fall elections. ... Party conventions are typically held only in presidential election years. But Mr. Trump became enamored with the idea of a splashy midterm convention last year, and party officials have been planning the logistics of the event for months. ... The convention will be held from Sept. 9-10, Mr. Trump said.

{snip}

The party that holds the White House has historically lost ground in midterm elections, and Republican officials see the two-day convention just ahead of early voting as offering the party a large platform to make the case to stay in power. ... A list of featured speakers and candidates was not immediately announced, but Mr. Trump said the event would feature “innovators, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, first responders, and job creators.”

Mr. Trump’s approval ratings have dropped sharply since his second term began, and some Democrats are eager for a convention where vulnerable Republicans in battleground states and swing seats will yoke themselves to him. ... In the Trump era, the Republican Party has underperformed in elections where Mr. Trump himself is not on the ballot. {snip} The Republican National Committee, which is overseeing the party’s convention, entered June with more than $125 million in the bank, while the D.N.C. is saddled with more debts than cash on hand.

{snip}

The location could bring added attention to the Texas Senate race, which pits James Talarico, a Democratic state legislator and seminarian, against Ken Paxton, the Republican state attorney general, who ousted Senator John Cornyn in the primary race with Mr. Trump’s support. Texas has not elected a Democrat statewide in decades, but Mr. Talarico has become one of his party’s top fund-raisers.

Shane Goldmacher is a Times national political correspondent.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/shane-goldmacher

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/us/politics/trump-republican-midterm-convention-dallas-texas.html

---

Hat tip, Tony Dukoupil on the CBS TV Evening News

[Prairie Gates]

1. This is a gimme for Dems running for seats: Is your Congressperson/Senator in your area campaigning?

Or are they in Dallas Texas stroking Trump's ego?

Repeat over and over again until you make being in Dallas Texas a byword for everything people perceive as wrong about the country.

There haven't been "midterm conventions" before because they are unnecessary: reps and Senators are selected locally, and there's no platform to adopt. There are no delegates because nobody is deciding anything, even ritually. There is no reason for a convention other than to glorify Trump.

So, is your rep or Senator in your district or state campaigning, or are they in Dallas Texas glorifying Trump?

[efhmc]

12. Obviously not from this small ultra " religious" right wing area where only repukes are good Americans and the rest of

us are vile haters of Christianity, who kill babies and want all of our children to be either bi or gay.

[Chasstev365]

2. Proceed MAGA Mussolini

Spotlight what assholes you are, show the fact that the GOP has litetally done NOTHING to help average Americans while in power, and illustrate to the world just how delusional the Republican Party is two month before the General Election.

[dweller]

3. Heads up

Grindr … get your site ready to fail

😐



✌🏻

[tishaLA]

4. It'll be a chance to get everyone on the same page with their cheating agenda

and the talking points for steaking seats and their plans to fuck with voters and poll workers.

Thank god we have good lawyers to challenge their bullshit. I just hope we have enough of them.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. He must be getting nervous

People aren’t “rallying ‘round the flag” for his pointless war, or for the 250th. I remember the bicentennial… People seemed to care about it; of course, we didn’t have cage matches on the White House lawn to celebrate… so, maybe it wasn’t as big a deal as I remember…

[NCDem47]

6. He is so radioactive

Only the looniest of the loons will show up. If you in a tight Senate race or in R+5 district or less, you won’t be caught dead at this event. I’m sure he will need to bribe, bully or blackmail to g Er some to attend.

But please Trump, make this about you. Make this election a referendum on YOU and bringing accountability and sanity back to D.C.

[dweller]

7. He will insist

HE is on the ballot .
Any repug with a lick of sense (there’s none now ) will run from this event .
But they won’t , they’ll be there with ear maxi pads or diapers , or whatever torque de jour is required to declare their fealty .


🫤



✌🏻

[NCDem47]

8. Having a 30% approval rating is NOT the flex Trump thinks it is

[dweller]

9. He says

The polls have him at all time high approval .

His handler , Dr Natalie , colors them in crayon for him daily


😐


✌🏻

[BaronChocula]

10. I'm guessing they can hold it

in a Hooter's. Separate checks. Meet Chachi.

[dave99]

11. shitstain really wants to fuck up the Republicans. Can't even remember which party it is in.

[thesquanderer]

13. This is a manufactured event. No one should air it except maybe c-span. (n/t)

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

14. Another Kiss Trump's ass festival

[Mysterian]

15. Will Kash Patel's wife be performing again?

What a total shit-show this will be!

[OhioBack2Blue]

16. I am sure I will be attacked for this comment but....

....this is the out of the box thinking that continues to elude the Democratic party. We are still back in the '60s trying to squeeze every last drop out of Joan Baez's music protest music, central route persuasion (The psychological term for convincing others by relying heavily on active thought, logic, and factual arguments), and performative acts.

Meanwhile we continue to have structural and tactical failures

Lack of building formal Institutions: Prioritizing decentralization and informal consensus over hierarchy makes it incredibly difficult for groups to transform spontaneous energy into stable political parties, legislative reforms, or permanent lobbying power. (Ex: Over-focus on building 501c3s to focus on educating people, believing if people just have knowledge they will vote more thoughtfully).

The Limits of "Single-Day" Mobilization - Absence of Sustained Noncooperation: Critics note that massive, highly-curated weekend street protests inherently imply an orderly return to "business as usual" by Monday. The heavy reliance on large scale rallies builds shallow, temporary allegiances rather than a deeply rooted, durable political consciousness among the public.

Alienation of the Working Class: Because many of these movements are heavily concentrated in urban areas, their focus on elitist issues created a deep cultural and economic disconnect with rural areas and the non-college working class.

Problems with ideological splintering and infiltration of groups

Lack of Specific, Actionable Policy Goals The "Big Tent" Dilution: To maximize turnout, organizers purposely framed the movement broadly as a "national resistance to tyranny" but this is so broad and fragmented in practice, the message becomes diluted to the larger, distracted American audience.

Fragmented strategy: Without a laser-focused goal, it is difficult to force specific concessions from the government.

Lack of Economic Disruption: As highlighted in USA Today, historical resistance movements (like the Civil Rights Movement) succeeded through prolonged sacrifice, deep economic disruption, sustained consumer boycotts, and general labor strikes. A single day of marching rarely hits an administration or its financial backers where it hurts.

Hyper-Decentralization and Weak Electoral Infrastructure

No Central Command: To make the movement accessible, protests are completely decentralized. While this protects the movement from singular points of failure, it leaves it without a hierarchical command structure capable of negotiating with officials or building permanent political infrastructure.

Disconnect from Elections: Political scientists at the Carnegie Endowment note that mass street mobilization only works if it directly feeds into a unified electoral strategy. The energy on the streets has not yet cleanly translated into cohesive opposition party platforms or local legislative power.

Over-Reliance on the "3.5% Rule"Flawed Benchmark Assumption: The movement explicitly relies on political scientist Erica Chenoweth's "3.5% rule"—the theory that if 3.5% of a population actively protests, regime change or major policy shifts become inevitable.The Counter-Strategy: Relying purely on reaching a numerical threshold (about 12 million Americans) assumes the state will yield to public optics. However, modern polarized administrations are highly insulated against large crowd optics, often framing the protests to their own base as partisan or anti-American

[intelpug]

17. ''Objectionable comment''

Don't read into the title of this what it seems to imply. Whether you get attacked or not I don't know but I for one think it is a brilliantly, well articulated summary with very salient points., Some times ''tough love'' is what is called for in searching for the truth and remedy of a situation or state of affairs rather than meaningless and harmfull platitudes meant to ease egos and stay popular.. Well done, Bravo

[mahina]

19. Is it not AI?

I thought it was and wondered what the prompt was.

It doesn’t change the point, but I thought it was blatantly obvious. Maybe I’m wrong.

[SunSeeker]

23. It's just another Trump rally. It's not "out of the box"; it's their one trick pony. nt

[LudwigPastorius]

18. Sure.

Spend a shitload of money on a self-aggrandizing Nuremberg rally for yourself.

That's fewer bucks going into your simps' campaigns.

[eppur_se_muova]

20. Good time for the TX power grid to go down and leave the convention with no AC.

Call it the Great GOP Crab Boil of '26.

[DallasNE]

21. Will The News Media Cover Such An Event?

Why would anyone but Fox News bother to cover such a non-event? I sure wouldn't listen in. Besides, Trump will suck all of the oxygen out of the room at a point when campaigns normally fire up their campaigns. But chaos is what Trump is all about. He wrongly thinks this would knock Epstein off of the news cycle. Let him try.

[SunSeeker]

22. Wow, Trump is really worried about Talarico clobbering Paxton!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

24. MaddowBlog-Republicans to hold rare midterm convention, creating two problems

Party officials are moving forward with plans for a 2026 convention in Dallas, but given the bigger picture, they probably ought to reconsider.

Link to tweet

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/republican-midterm-convention-dallas-trump-election

Most voters probably know that the nation’s major political parties gather every four years for a major national convention, at which they formally nominate their respective presidential tickets. The quadrennial events also offer the parties an opportunity to put their best foot forward while they have the national spotlight......

As the process moved forward, the Democratic National Committee ultimately decided not to bother with such a gathering, but earlier this year the Republican National Committee approved a plan for a midterm convention, and it now appears that it’s actually going to happen. The Associated Press reported:

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Republicans will hold their first-ever national convention ahead of November’s midterm elections, an unusual event aimed at boosting turnout in races that will decide whether the party maintains control of Congress.

The convention will be held in Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10.

..Whether Republican officials appreciate it or not, there are two main problems they should probably keep in mind. The first is that holding a national convention is extremely expensive. Indeed, when Democrats abandoned their midterm conventions several decades ago, it was largely because they simply saw better uses for limited financial resources.

Republicans have a significant financial advantage over Democrats, but that doesn’t make it any easier to justify throwing several million dollars at an unnecessary event in September.

But there’s another dimension to this that’s just as important: One of the underlying points of a national convention is nationalizing an election cycle — and given how very unpopular the incumbent Republican president is, the party should be going out of its way to localize the midterms.

Indeed, it’s likely that many Democratic officials are looking forward to the GOP’s convention, since it will give the minority party an opportunity to do what it wants to do anyway: connect Republican candidates and officeholders to Trump.

I was a Clinton Delegate to the 2016 National Convention in Philadelphia. National Conventions are not cheap to put on and are not cheap to attend.

Here trump wants a platform to nationalize the midterms. Many GOP candidates would probably prefer that trump take a less active role in the midterms. Given that this convention is in Dallas, I have a feeling that Paxton will be getting some attention that he not appreciate.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

25. Trump's 'risky' GOP convention idea shows his 'stranglehold' is slipping: analysts

Again, I was a Clinton delegate to the 2016 National Convention. National Conventions are not cheap and take some planning. I am hoping that trump causes the GOP to spend a ton of money. I am also hoping that this convention will in effect nationalize the midterms. There are candidates who are keeping away from trump for good reason. This convention is going to render any attempt to hide from trump meaningless.

Trump's 'risky' GOP convention idea shows his 'stranglehold' is slipping: analysts #RawStory

— #TuckFrump (@realtuckfrumper.bsky.social) 2026-07-01T18:47:31.000Z

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-s-big-rnc-dallas-convention-move-could-upend-gop-chances/

President Donald Trump's unusual decision to host a midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, this fall could have unexpected consequences for Republicans, a CNN analyst warned on Wednesday.

Journalist Chuck Todd told CNN anchor Erica Hill that the event, hosted by the Republican National Committee on Sept. 9 and 10, has been touted as an attempt to drive voter enthusiasm ahead of the crucial elections this fall — without Trump on the ballot — but that it might not benefit the GOP.

"I think the Democrats will help pay for this Convention," Todd said. "I think they would love to see this race as nationalized as possible in the midterm elections. The more nationalized they are, the worse that is for the incumbent party."

Todd pointed to history and emphasized the convention could ultimately backfire for Republicans.

"Doing this the way that Trump wants to do it, making it about him, making it about you're either with Trump or you're against Trump, that's the frame, frankly, Democrats would love to go into the general election with," Todd explained.

He also described how GOP insiders were strategizing to target moderate Republican voters.

"Now I understand why there are some that argue inside the Republican Party, knowing that Trump is unpopular with the middle, that say, 'This is a turnout election. We're not trying to persuade anybody. We've got to find ways to fire up the MAGA base,' and the MAGA base has never shown up when Donald Trump hasn't been on the ballot," Todd said.

[oasis]

26. Bring it on you slimy pieces of shit. Kid Rock

needs an extra gig.