There was a dilemma at the heart of the Republican midterm convention that every speaker had to navigate in their own way.
The midterm convention was designed to address a specific decade-long problem: support for President Donald Trump isn’t easily transferable to other Republicans, especially when he isn’t on the ballot. Some Trump voters don’t bother to turn out in midterm elections when he isn’t the main attraction.
Trump and a bevy of administration officials appeared in Dallas to remind those voters who they would be letting down if they don’t come to the rescue of narrow Republican congressional majorities in November. “You’ve gotta do this for me,” Trump said on Thursday night in his second speech of the event.
But many of these Republicans are endangered because Trump’s job approval rating is below 40% in the RealClearPolitics polling average. Democrats are up 6.2 points in the generic congressional ballot, which measures which party voters prefer to see control Congress.
In all but two midterm elections since 1938, the party that holds the White House has lost seats in the House. But oil is running at $100 a barrel, diesel prices are nearing $6 a gallon, the country is once again at war in the Middle East, and inflation remains stubbornly high — all difficult conditions for incumbents and the party in power.
But Republicans remain competitive in some Senate races where polls show more than 40% want to cast their votes in protest against Trump. One of these candidates, Michigan GOP Senate nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers, spoke at the GOP midterm convention. What keeps some of these Republicans in the running is Democratic candidates who are too far to the left.
The midterm convention planners tried to square this circle by making the case for the Trump administration and highlighting the most left-wing Democrats on the ballot this year, including Rogers’s opponent Abdul el Sayed.
“Don’t give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here and there,” Vice President JD Vance said in his keynote address Thursday night. “Look, I’m not asking anybody to agree with me on every single issue. I’m not asking anybody to agree on every single policy of the administration. What I am asking you to do is recognize the contrast with the radicals and recognize the achievements of the last 18 months. We’ve done a lot, my friends, and we can do a lot more if we fight together.”
Control of the Senate runs through several states Trump carried in 2024, some by double digits (this includes Texas, where Republicans were gathered). Republicans also sought to make the red portions of the House map even redder through mid-decade redistricting.
But in making this case, a few things went unsaid. Speakers largely avoided making specific commitments as to when public perceptions of the economy were going to change, even as many of them seemed confident they would eventually.
There was no word on whether the war in Iran would end, although Trump told reporters a few hours before he addressed the convention for the first time that it likely wouldn’t be before the midterm elections.
In answering this question about Iran, Trump took a stab at addressing economic expectations as well: “[R]ight after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward,” he said. “They’re going to be tumbling down, and we’ll get them down, I think, for gasoline. We’ll get them below $2 a gallon, but not until after the midterms. I think it’s going to take a little bit longer than the midterms.”
This wasn’t said at the convention itself, however.
One of the biggest questions hanging over the GOP gathering is what comes after the midterm elections, when attention inevitably shifts to 2028 and Trump faces constitutional term limits.
The answer was heavily implied, with Vance taking a front-and-center role at the proceedings, much as he has emerged as a top fundraiser for the Republican National Committee and a leading surrogate on the campaign trail. The most discussed alternative, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, wasn’t in Dallas and hasn’t been all that active on the domestic political front.
But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has openly expressed his presidential ambitions and was the runner-up behind Trump in 2016, spoke at the midterm convention. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), who is seeking a fourth term, also addressed the hometown crowd amid rumors he might consider a presidential run.
Outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) wasn’t on hand in Dallas, though his would-be successor, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), was. But DeSantis, who challenged Trump for the nomination in 2024, was quick to pan the president’s $5,000 “dividend” check proposal.
When the crowd chanted about Vance becoming the 48th president, he demurred. “ Can we please, we got to take care of business this November, then we’ll worry about what comes next,” he said.
That has been Vance’s official 2028 position for months as speculation builds.
There was also no discussion of what the administration would do if forced to coexist with a Democratic Congress. That’s to be expected at a convention designed to promote Republican House and Senate candidates, though Trump’s son-in-law made overtures to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in a private meeting last month.
THE 10 SENATE SEATS MOST LIKELY TO FLIP IN 2026
Trump was a little more forthcoming about a Democratic Congress in an interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham. “I’ll probably be able to make deals with them, you know, they’re going to want some stuff, and you’ll make deals, it’s one of those things,” he said. “It’s not as dire, maybe it is as dire.”
Democrats famously impeached Trump twice in his first term after taking control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections.