‘Trumpapalooza’ and the GOP’s Risky Midterm Bet  

Dallas — Attendees at Republicans’ 2026 special midterm convention were promised a “Trumpapalooza” as they rallied in Texas this week, and the event certainly delivered.

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Donald Trump was everywhere at the two-day convention. Attendees wore credentials with photos of the president dancing, and organizers at the American Airlines Center, home of the NHL’s Dallas Stars and NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, replaced team photos hanging in the arena with pictures of moments from Trump’s political career. Trump also delivered remarks both nights, positioning the upcoming midterms as integral to the future of his agenda.

“Why is it that no matter how well you’re doing, not a president, Democrat or Republican — almost never wins the midterms?” Trump said in his first-night speech on Wednesday. “We’ve got to change that because we have something going that’s so good. We can’t let that string be broken. So I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot.”

As demonstrated by the convention, Republicans are placing a major bet on Trump’s continued ability to turn out voters, even when he’s not on the ballot. It’s a bold strategy, especially since Trump’s approval ratings are underwater. Americans disapprove of his job performance by a margin of 18 points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

Nevertheless, the GOP is hewing close to Trump. In the days leading up to the convention, the Republican National Committee warned candidates not to distance themselves from the president on the campaign trail. “If members are choosing to keep an arm’s length from the president, they risk alienating their base [and] they risk 15 to 20 percent of their key Republican voters not turning out because they don’t feel like they’re a good supporter of the president’s policies,” an RNC spokesperson told Politico last week.

At the convention, the president did not give them much of a choice. In his Night One speech, he promised to visit every state and district with a competitive race for the Senate or House of Representatives. “We’re going to have rallies just like this,” Trump said. “We’re going to have big arenas loaded up with people.”

If the speech he gives at those rallies is anything like the nearly two-hour address he delivered at the convention, candidates may not find it especially helpful. Though Trump on Wednesday bashed extreme Democratic candidates and touted his record on border security, he also spent an inordinate amount of time on his less popular initiatives. His speech included lengthy tangents on his White House ballroom construction project, his propensity to rename geographic features like the “Gulf of America,” and the Iran war.

At one point, Trump detailed how he made his decision to attack Iran even though he knew it would increase the price of gas and tank the stock market. In his telling, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asked him if he could hold off on the attacks.

“I said, ‘No, because if we don’t hit them now, they’re going to have a nuclear weapon within one month,’” Trump recounted on the stage.

On the convention’s second night, Trump gave more abbreviated remarks before closing the proceedings by inviting presidential tenor Christopher Macchio onto the stage to sing “America the Beautiful,” “Nessun Dorma” from the opera Turandot, and “All I Ask of You” from the musical The Phantom of the Opera.

Those at the convention responsible for ensuring that Republicans keep both chambers of Congress also made support for Trump a major part of their remarks. “The only way to keep dangerous, radical, weird [Democrats] out of the Senate is a united Republican Party, standing with our President Donald J. Trump,” Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, chairman of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, told the crowd on the first night. “Stand for the president, Donald J. Trump!”

Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who leads House Republicans’ campaign arm, was slightly more measured in his remarks on the second night, but he still closely connected the upcoming midterms with the president. “President Trump is on a rescue mission to save this country,” he said. “And so, my question to all of you: Are you going to give him two more years to finish this fight?”

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Most people who spoke at the convention directed their remarks at the Republican base voters they hope to turn out, rather than persuadable independent voters still deciding how to cast their vote.

“This could be a great tradition for the Republican Party as a way to energize the political base every few years,” Ron Phillips, a delegate from Washington, D.C., who once chaired the district’s Republican Party, told National Review.

But some speakers — namely, those vulnerable Republicans running in swing districts — did not appear to share the goal of energizing the GOP base by praising the president. Many Republicans in competitive races did not even show up. Those who did come did not make the president a key part of their message. Representatives Ryan Mackenzie and Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania barely even mentioned the president, focusing instead on the tax breaks they voted for in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).

Representative Mike Lawler of New York, who is running for reelection in a district that Kamala Harris won two years ago, explicitly targeted his message at “commonsense Democrats and independents across the country, tuning in and still undecided about their vote in November.”

Lawler touted his “very public fight” with Republican House leadership and Trump in which he and other members successfully lobbied them to expand the state and local tax deduction, which benefits residents of blue states and cities with high taxes, in the OBBBA.

“Instead of rolling over, I made my case directly to the president,” Lawler said. “But by working together we delivered historic tax cuts for working families and retirees.”

Broadly, Trump was the main focus of the event, but the convention may ultimately be remembered as most beneficial to Vice President JD Vance, Trump’s heir apparent who dazzled the crowd on the second night.

The high point of his speech was when a protester carrying what appeared to be a Mexican and a Palestinian flag interrupted proceedings in the convention hall for a moment. Once order was restored, Vance informed the TV audience what had happened. “Well, my friend, if you love Mexico so much, get your ass over there. I’ll buy you the plane ticket,” he said, eliciting the biggest applause of the entire convention.

Later in the speech, one attendee yelled, “48!” and the crowd joined in by chanting the same thing.

“We got to take care of business this November. Then we’ll worry about what comes next,” Vance said.

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