DALLAS — Attendees, candidates, and party operatives poured into 95-degree Fahrenheit heat for the first-ever GOP midterm convention, bringing with them high energy and a clear focus on President Donald Trump.
In the days leading up to the party’s first midterm convention, many political experts and members of the press billed it as a Trump lovefest — and among the attendees interviewed by the Washington Examiner, it lived up to that description.
The excitement around Trump was palpable. Attendees repeatedly called him their favorite president, with some traveling hundreds of miles for the chance to see him. One Tennessee couple drove 12 hours to attend, calling the experience a “lifetime” opportunity, while another attendee described the atmosphere as “electrifying.”
“I just want to be close to him because he is outstanding. He’s outstanding. The best president we’ve ever had, ever. … It’s a lifetime experience for us. First and probably last — we’re elderly, and we came from Tennessee. We drove 12 hours Monday to get here,” Cynthia Boyd Hyas told the Washington Examiner.
“I just love the man. He’s not perfect. And if people would just give him a chance and see how sincere he is, I think they would appreciate him because he’s done more for us in less amount of time than any president that I can remember,” Robert Baez, who traveled from Tennessee with Boyd, told the Washington Examiner.
Troy Rolling, president of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, said he came expecting Trump to do something he believes Republicans sometimes struggle with.
“I’m expecting to hear the president do something that Republicans tend to have a hard time doing, and that’s telling the story of America, our successes, and what the Republican Party has been doing,” Rowley said.
After Trump took the stage, the mood among attendees centered on the president and the stakes he believed surrounded the midterm elections. Trump put that dynamic front and center during his nearly two-hour address, urging Republicans to “pretend that I’m on the ballot” as they head into November.
That sense of urgency was evident among those who gathered in Dallas. Attendees spoke about the divisions they see in the country, and their concerns about what would happen after Trump leaves office.
Their comments suggested that their enthusiasm for Trump extends beyond the November elections. For many whom the Washington Examiner interviewed, the convention seemed to be as much about seeing Trump and hearing directly from him as it was about the various individual candidates running for office.
Sharon Newton, Texas state Senate District 13 chairwoman for the Harris County Republican Party, traveled from Houston. She said she believes Trump is central to the party’s future.
“Trump has all the right ideas to take our party and all Americans into the future, and have a prosperous and peaceful and great country forever,” Newton said.
The enthusiasm from attendees was clear, even as the event’s logistics sometimes appeared less settled behind the scenes, and despite the top areas of the arena being empty. Staffers were often unsure of where to direct people, and one staffer said she received information about her role and event logistics only 48 hours before the convention.
Outside the convention, Democrats were mounting their own counterprogramming, casting the GOP gathering as a distraction and arguing that voters are more concerned with the economy and the cost of living. Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) and Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder held a news conference with other Democrats on Wednesday as part of the Democratic response to the convention.
Scudder argued that Democrats are trying to shift focus toward working-class voters and away from the spectacle surrounding the GOP gathering.
“I have seen a party that is fighting to preserve institutions. They see what Donald Trump’s doing. They’re patriotic Americans trying to make sure this country doesn’t get torn apart. But they lost sight of the fact that those institutions they’re fighting to preserve have not worked for working-class people,” Scudder said.
FIVE TAKEAWAYS FROM OPENING NIGHT OF FIRST-EVER GOP MIDTERM CONVENTION
“What you’re also seeing is Texas Democrats that are tired of winning arguments, ready to win some elections.”
But inside the convention halls, the focus remained on the Republican Party, its agenda, and the president at its very center.