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Republicans open first midterm convention in Dallas

September 9, 2026

Republicans gather in Dallas for a two-day convention Trump devised to rally supporters before the midterm elections, with the president delivering keynote remarks both nights.

Midterm elections are typically hard on the party holding power in Washington, and national conventions have traditionally been held in presidential years. Trump returned to office in 2024 with Republicans in control.

Key facts

NPR reports the party has never staged a convention in a midterm year, and that this one opens Wednesday in Dallas with Trump on stage both nights. NBC News reports the gathering was Trump's own idea, and that he expects it to lift enthusiasm and turnout among his voters. More than 100 House Republicans and candidates are due in Dallas, NBC News reports, citing a person familiar with the planning who asked not to be named. Trump gives the keynote today.

On the program itself the accounts converge. NBC News reports the agenda leans on what Trump has done in office: the crackdown on immigration, the push to bring drug prices down, the tax and spending law he signed last year, tariffs, and a case against the Democrats. Its speaker list runs through the Cabinet, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at Health and Human Services and Scott Bessent at Treasury, and it reports Trump has thrown his weight behind Ken Paxton for the Texas Senate seat over the incumbent, Sen. John Cornyn, while Paxton may fall short of the primary support his campaign claimed in internal polling. NPR reports organizers pitch the two days around what people pay and earn, security at the border, and a defense of American values. The New York Times treats Dallas as a test of whether Trump can still speak to what voters worry about. The Washington Post carries the same gathering under the nickname supporters have given it. Al Jazeera reports voters themselves are split, some seeing a boost for the party and others a spectacle.

The strain inside the party is corroborated as well. NPR, in its own analysis using Cook Political Report race ratings, finds fewer than half the Republicans running in competitive House and Senate races on the speaker list. NBC News reports some of those lawmakers had ruled out the trip or were still undecided a week beforehand. Asked about his plans by reporters at the Capitol, Republican Rep. Zach Nunn of Iowa said, "We're going to be back in our district, working hard." Speaking of himself in the third person, Trump said, "The problem that we have is they say that Trump does great when he's on the ballot." The date, the venue, the program and the cast are reported. What the two days do to Republican fortunes in November is not.

Referring to himself in the third person, Trump said, "The problem that we have is they say that Trump does great when he's on the ballot," NPR reported.

Still developing

The midterm convention in Dallas is reported the same way in every account, and nothing in the record as of the draft cuts against it.

How settled the reporting is

Reported 100% · Contested 0% · Developing 0%

Sources