DALLAS SHOWDOWN: What to Expect From the GOP’s First-Ever Midterm Convention

Republicans will descend on Dallas this week for something the party has never attempted before: a full-scale national convention in the middle of a president’s term, designed to put Donald Trump’s record, the Republican congressional agenda and some of the country’s most competitive candidates on one stage less than two months before Election Day.

The Republican Midterm Convention will run Wednesday and Thursday at the American Airlines Center, with programming expected from roughly 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Central each day. President Trump is scheduled to appear both nights, delivering the opening-night keynote and returning for closing remarks Thursday. Vice President JD Vance will also headline the gathering.

This is not a traditional convention with delegates selecting a presidential nominee. The RNC describes the event as a showcase for Trump’s accomplishments, Republican candidates and the party’s agenda heading into November. Organizers expect tens of thousands of attendees, while roughly 100 Republican lawmakers and candidates are expected to participate.

The policy menu will be unmistakably focused on the issues Republicans want voters thinking about in the final stretch.

A detailed convention schedule published by Current Revolt lists programming on the Working Families Tax Cuts, No Tax on Tips and Overtime, prescription-drug prices, school choice, border enforcement, voter ID, public safety, domestic manufacturing and congressional stock trading. The two-night schedule also includes candidate showcases, a 9/11 remembrance and programming devoted to contrasting Republican policies with the growing influence of the socialist left inside the Democrat Party.

For Nevada, there will be a familiar face onstage.

Marty O’Donnell, the Republican nominee challenging Democrat Rep. Susie Lee in NV-03, is among the battleground House candidates scheduled to speak. He joins Republican contenders from Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, New York and several closely watched Texas districts. Axios reported that the candidate lineup reflects one of the convention’s central goals: putting Republicans running in races that could decide control of Congress directly in front of Trump’s national coalition.

That gives O’Donnell a national platform at a particularly consequential moment in his race against Lee. NV-03 is among the House districts where both parties are investing heavily, and Trump carried the district in 2024 even as Lee won reelection.

The broader speaker roster reads like a cross-section of the Trump-era Republican Party. Speaker Mike Johnson, NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson, Sen. Tim Scott, Gov. Greg Abbott, Sen. Ted Cruz, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Donald Trump Jr. and former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt are all scheduled to participate.

There is also a strategic reason for the spectacle.

Midterms traditionally punish the president’s party, and Republicans are trying to solve an enduring Trump-era problem: how to turn out voters who enthusiastically back Trump when his name is not actually on their ballot. Reuters reports that organizers intend to use the convention to refocus attention on tax cuts, immigration enforcement, health care costs and the ideological contrast with Democrats.

That makes Dallas less a celebration than a kickoff to the final sprint.

Trump will be the biggest name in the building, but the November candidates standing beside him are the ones who will have to turn the convention’s energy into votes.

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