President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the Republican Party will hold a September midterm convention in Dallas, bringing the president to Texas for a high-profile event to promote the GOP ahead of the fall election.
“Dallas will take center stage on September 9th and 10th as we celebrate our Nation, our achievements and our bright future,” Trump said in a post on his social media site, Truth Social.
The Republican National Committee had publicly discussed plans to host a first-of-its-kind gathering for a midterm election year and explored Dallas as a host site. The convention will gather GOP politicians and candidates months before the November election and place Texas — where Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico are locked in a competitive Senate race — at the center of the national conversation.
Paxton, the three-term attorney general, relayed the news at a tele-town hall earlier this month, according to CNN, telling listeners he expected Trump to attend and that it would be held in Dallas.
The midterm convention’s early September date will occur once primary season has concluded in all states but before early voting begins anywhere.
Nationally, the GOP has struggled to mobilize the president’s coalition in years when Trump was not on the ballot, and leaders have described the midterm convention as an opportunity to parade the party’s stars onstage before voting begins.
RNC Chairman Joe Gruters has referred to the convention as “Trump-a-palooza” — tying the candidates to the president, who was able to turn out legions of low-propensity voters in 2024 en route to the White House, but whose approval rating has since slipped deeply underwater.
Republicans hope to fire up the party’s base and essentially put Trump on the ballot, with the idea to engage lower-propensity voters. Candidates in tough or important races will be highlighted, the source familiar with the convention said, giving them a platform to address a national audience as races heat up.
A list of speakers has not been announced, but the presumed location in Texas would increase the prominence of the state’s GOP candidates up and down the ballot. Republicans are hoping to flip five U.S. House seats that the Legislature redrew to be more favorable to the GOP, and the convention could put a spotlight on the party’s recruits.
“At the Event, we will have hardworking Americans, our Great Innovators, Entrepreneurs, Manufacturers, First Responders and Job Creators who are powering our Nation’s Golden Age, and proving that America’s best days are still ahead of us,” Trump said. “We will also have lots of Great Entertainment — It will be a RALLY like none other!”
At the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Gov. Greg Abbott, Sen. Ted Cruz and Republican U.S. Reps. Monica De La Cruz of Edinburg, Wesley Hunt of Houston and Ronny Jackson of Amarillo gave speeches from the main stage. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, a former Democrat turned Republican, spoke at the 2024 convention as well.
The president’s party has historically struggled in midterm elections — Republicans lost dozens of House seats in the 2018 midterm during Trump’s first term.
Democrats discussed a potential midterm convention as well, but with far less cash on hand than the RNC, the Democratic National Committee decided against it.
Talarico, a state representative from Austin, and other statewide Democratic candidates will need strong turnout in blue Dallas County and an overperformance in suburbs throughout the Metroplex to flip Texas — and a midterm GOP convention centered around a president with lagging approval ratings could motivate Democrats to turn out as well.
