President Donald Trump and the White House are delivering on another promise: To make November’s midterm elections about him.
This week’s Republican midterm convention, dubbed “Trumpapalooza,” comes almost a year after White House chief of staff Susie Wiles promised Trump and his political apparatus would put the president “on the ballot” in 2026. The strategy is atypical for presidents and their outside operatives during midterm cycles.
Just ask former President Barack Obama, who described the Democrats’ poor performance in the 2010 midterm elections, in which they lost 63 House seats, the most for a party since 1938, as a “shellacking.”
“Typically, in the midterms, it’s not about who’s sitting at the White House — you localize the election and you keep the federal officials out of it,” Wiles said last November before mentioning her plans for Trump. “I haven’t quite broken it to him yet, but he’s going to campaign like it’s 2024 again.”
Though there have been complaints from some Republicans about his lack of commitment to the midterm elections, arguably demonstrated by his prioritization of legacy projects, Trump will appear center stage at Dallas’ 20,000-person-capacity American Airlines Center at least twice during the two-day convention’s primetime programming.
Trump is scheduled to deliver the convention’s keynote address on Wednesday before providing the closing remarks on Thursday.
“Republicans will highlight what’s on the line this election: common sense versus craziness, real relief versus higher taxes,” Republican National Committee press secretary Natalie Baldassarre, whose political committee is organizing the convention, told the Washington Examiner. “No one drives out voters better than President Trump, as evident with over 20,000 tickets already given out and voters still asking for more.”
Trump was also at the center of his super PAC MAGA Inc.’s first ad buy of the election cycle last week, part of a $1 million spend, after reports he directed his political aides, separate from their White House counterparts, to make ads featuring him and defending his record.
“He’s the toughest, most resilient person that I’ve ever met, and nothing’s going to stop him from fighting so hard for the country he loves,” UFC CEO Dana White says in the ad, called “Toughest Guy,” through a clip of his speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Making the election about Trump could help turn out low-propensity MAGA voters that only show up for the president, but sit out contests where conventional Republicans are on the ballot. Yet, that cuts both ways, as putting the president front and center could also mobilize Democrats to come out and vote.
The strategy is risky with Trump’s approval rating, on average, at net negative 17 percentage points, and Democrats having an average 5-point lead in generic congressional ballot polling less than two months before Election Day.
The convention being all about Trump could be one reason some Republicans are choosing to focus on their campaigns instead of attending.
“She won’t be at the convention,” a spokeswoman for Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told the Washington Examiner. “She’ll be in Maine.”
Collins’ reelection race is one of six toss-up contests that will determine which party is in the majority in the Senate, with the House Republican majority similarly at risk in just more than 50 days.
A spokesperson for Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany added, “He will be unable to attend, as our campaign has events scheduled.”
Simultaneously, however, several vulnerable Republicans are not only attending the convention but are speaking on the main stage.
Most notable of those Republicans include Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) and Texas Attorney General and Senate nominee Ken Paxton, in addition to Reps. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA), Mike Lawler (R-NY), and Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA).
Like Collins, Husted and Paxton are, on average, polling behind their Democratic opponents by about 2 points.
The issue for Republicans is that while select Trump policies and processes – for instance, his tit-for-tat tariffs and rhetoric regarding Canada – are not broadly popular, the president is with his base.
“President Trump is the sole reason Republican politicians have had any electoral success since 2004,” Trump political adviser Alex Bruesewitz told the Washington Examiner. “The GOP was politically lifeless until he emerged in 2016. He is a voter-turnout machine, and every Republican stands to gain enormously from his involvement.”
MELANIA TRUMP HAS NO PLANS TO ATTEND RNC’S MIDTERM CONVENTION
Fellow Republican strategist Alex Conant, who was Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign communications director, agreed.
“Given the map this fall, Republicans will be fine if we can turn out the base,” Conant told the Washington Examiner. “Nobody turns out the Republican base better than President Trump. Anything he can do to unite and energize Republican voters will help our candidates.”