{"id":1050757,"date":"2026-09-08T11:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1050757\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T11:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:31:17","slug":"what-to-watch-at-the-gops-trump-focused-convention-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1050757\/","title":{"rendered":"What to watch at the GOP’s Trump-focused convention in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Republicans will descend on Dallas this week for a two-day convention dreamed up by President Donald Trump<\/a> to rally his supporters for this year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump has said he wanted to channel the kind of political extravaganza that each party holds every four years to formally nominate a presidential candidate and showcase their vision for the country. There\u2019s even going to be a huge drop of balloons at the end.<\/p>\n

Republicans have never held a midterm convention before, although Democrats did in the 1970s and 1980s. Here are some things to watch Wednesday and Thursday: <\/p>\n

Why is this happening?<\/p>\n

Trump had long floated the idea of holding such a convention and Republicans worked to make his wish a reality.<\/p>\n

Midterms are often difficult for the party in power in Washington, and Trump believes the event can juice enthusiasm for the party and boost turnout among his voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretend, please, that I\u2019m on the ballot,\u201d Trump said recently in South Carolina. \u201cJust come and vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans said the event will help catapult its candidates into November, but it will also showcase the first two years of Trump\u2019s term. Although the president\u2019s poll numbers are sagging, he insists that running on his record will give Republicans their best shot at winning. <\/p>\n

Who is going to the convention?<\/p>\n

The presidential nominating conventions that are held every four years by Republicans and Democrats typically draw thousands of rank-and-file party members chosen as delegates to represent their states and participate in the ceremonial nominating process.<\/p>\n

No nominations are going to be awarded this time, since that\u2019s already been settled by primary contests. The event will also be open to the public, which could make it feel more like a Trump rally than a convention. <\/p>\n

More than 100 Republican House members and candidates are expected to be in Dallas, according to a person familiar with the event who requested anonymity before it begins. They were required to pay $25,000 for tickets and lodging, which the person described as typical for political conventions. <\/p>\n

Some lawmakers in competitive races have indicated they won\u2019t go or hadn\u2019t determined their plans less than a week before the convention.<\/p>\n

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Who will speak at the convention?<\/p>\n

Trump will speak each night. On Wednesday, he\u2019s delivering a keynote address. On Thursday, he\u2019s scheduled to appear again after a speech from Vice President JD Vance.<\/p>\n

A long list of speakers includes members of Trump\u2019s Cabinet like Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. <\/p>\n

Also set to address the crowd are Attorney General Todd Blanche, the president\u2019s son Donald Trump Jr. and former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, as well as Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton and Mike Rogers, the party\u2019s Senate nominee in Michigan.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are giving speeches, as are many incumbents and candidates in some key, competitive races for the House and Senate around the country. <\/p>\n

Everyday Americans are expected to take turns onstage sharing how they have benefited from the president\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n

Organizers have said there will be more than 50 speakers or presentations each night, with many of the remarks kept brief to keep the pace fast for viewers and easy to share online. <\/p>\n

Trump has also promised there will be \u201clots of Great Entertainment\u201d and referred to it as \u201ca RALLY like none other.\u201d<\/p>\n

What will they focus on?<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s candidates will be showcased, including Paxton, the Texas Senate hopeful, whom Trump controversially threw his support behind instead of backing incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. Despite years of scandals, Paxton won with Trump\u2019s backing, giving Democrats an opponent they see as more beatable in an otherwise conservative state. Trump has said one of the focuses for the Texas convention will be Paxton and trying to get him elected, saying \u201che\u2019s a good man.\u201d<\/p>\n

But much of the program is focused on Trump\u2019s agenda, from his crackdown on immigration, efforts to lower prescription drug prices, the sweeping tax cuts and spending law he signed last year and his tariffs, along with a partisan case against Democrats. Expect many of the speakers to echo Trump\u2019s attack lines portraying Democrats as communists.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been updated to correct the Texas Senate candidate\u2019s name to Ken Paxton, not Ken Paxon.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Republicans will descend on Dallas this week for a two-day convention dreamed up by President…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1050758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[45816,7373,1596,84,69,90,57,2066,25227,8591,8133,420627,18880,214,74652,8119,53949,50,80,15010,18244,4411,358,95,313941,5028,89,322,67,132,68,93],"class_list":["post-1050757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-2024-united-states-presidential-election","tag-2026-elections","tag-dallas","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-general-news","tag-jd-vance","tag-john-cornyn","tag-jr","tag-karoline-leavitt","tag-ken-paxon","tag-ken-paxton","tag-michigan","tag-midterm-elections","tag-mike-johnson","tag-mike-rogers","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","tag-scott-bessent","tag-ted-cruz","tag-texas","tag-todd-blanche","tag-trump-hub","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1050757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1050758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1050757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1050757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1050757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}