DALLAS – Republicans are kicking off two days of political pageantry aimed at blunting Democrats’ momentum in the battle for control of Congress, holding their first-ever midterm election convention ‒ headlined tonight by President Donald Trump ‒ in a bid to boost GOP enthusiasm amid warning signs for the party.
Trump is rallying Republicans for the final push toward the Nov. 3 election with a big show in the Lone Star State featuring a long list of party leaders and candidates in swing districts.
The president’s approval rating has sagged as the Iran war drags on and cost-of-living concerns remain top of mind for many voters, threatening to weigh down GOP candidates. Trump has turned to the mini-convention to provide a boost as the party struggles to sell his second-term agenda.
The event starts at 4 p.m. CT today at the American Airlines Center with more than five hours of speeches and political programming touting GOP policies and blasting Democrats, who are staging counterprogramming. Republicans will have to compete with the first NFL regular season game, also airing Wednesday night, for television viewership.
Inside the American Airlines Center, as the final preparations are underway for the Republican National Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., September 8, 2026. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
More: Trump bets on himself as midterm savior. Will ‘Trumpapalooza’ backfire?
Trump tariffs on Canada create fissures among Republicans before convention
12:42 PM ET, September 9 2026, Bart Jansen
The convention offered an opportunity for Republican unity heading toward the midterm election, but Trump’s escalating trade war with Canada has created fissures within the party.
Trump imposed 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in goods after trade talks collapsed in August. Canada, the country’s second-largest trading partner, retaliated with “dollar-for-dollar” tariffs on Sept. 8. Trump then said he would impose tariffs on imports later this month of dairy products, alcohol and motorcycles, and he threatened to block Bombardier aircraft made north of the border.
But Bombardier employs more than 1,000 people in Wichita, Kansas. GOP Kansas Sens. Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall, who is up for reelection, pledged to fight to keep the jobs that “contribute their talent and expertise to our nation’s defense and aerospace capabilities.”
The amounts at stake can seem small on a national scale, but are crucial locally. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is also up for reelection and will not attend the GOP midterm convention, persuaded the administration to exempt road salt and cement from the latest tariffs. The border town of Frenchville would have had to pay $10,000 more for road salt, and a ready-mix cement company faced an additional cost of $150,000 a month if Trump’s tariffs had been imposed, she said.
Republicans seek to jolt election that favors Democrats
12:20 PM ET, September 9 2026, Zac Anderson and Joey Garrison
Republicans come into the convention looking for a jolt to fend off a potential blue wave.
As of Sept. 8, the Polymarket betting market is giving Democrats an 87% chance to gain control of the House and a 53% chance to take the Senate, up from 28% this time a year ago, as several Senate Democratic candidates in competitive races have surged to polling leads.
Decision Desk HQ, a closely watched election forecaster, on Sept. 8 gave Democrats a 50% chance of winning the Senate. For much of the past year, the forecaster has called the Senate decisively for Republicans.
Democrats hold polling leads in eight of the nine top battleground Senate races, according to the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls: North Carolina (+8 percentage points), Georgia (+7.5), Maine (+2.3), Michigan (+2.3), Texas (+2.4), New Hampshire (+2), Ohio (+2.6), and Alaska (+2.) Republicans have a narrow lead (+1.8) percentage points in Iowa.
Who is speaking at the convention today?
12:06 PM ET, September 9 2026, Zac Anderson and Joey Garrison
Trump is scheduled to take the stage at 9 p.m., but before that the GOP will showcase candidates in key battleground districts.
Among those speaking today are North Carolina Senate candidate Michael Whatley, Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton, Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, who is running for re-election, and Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins. The Real Clear Politics average of recent polls shows all four candidates trailing.
Candidates in competitive House districts, including Pennsylvania Rep. Rob Bresnahan and Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden, also will address the convention crowd, along with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds.
Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) speaks before introducing his running mate, Florida Republican State Sen. Bryan Avila, during an event at the Freedom Tower in Miami on Aug. 25, 2026 in Miami, Florida. Avila, a Republican lawmaker who represents Hialeah, has been leading the Donalds campaign “Latinos for Byron” coalition. Donalds is running against Democratic challenger David Jolly in the general election for the Florida governor’s seat.
Republicans in competitve races skip GOP convention
11:59 AM ET, September 9 2026, Zac Anderson and Joey Garrison
While many of the GOP’s top figures will be in Dallas over the next two days, not everyone in the party is excited for the event.
Some candidates in key districts are skipping the convention, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska. Both races are central in the fight for control of the Senate. Freshman Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Michigan, also is among those skipping.
“He’s in one of the toughest races in the country and his voters are in mid-Michigan, not Dallas,” Jason Cabel Roe, Barrett’s top campaign strategist, told USA TODAY. “Attending was never a consideration.”
Some Republicans question whether the event helps battleground candidates. The convention comes just after Labor Day, as the campaign season kicks off in earnest, requiring candidates to take time away from talking to voters less than two months before Election Day. Being too closely tied to Trump also could be problematic for candidates in tight races. Just 4 in 10 voters approve of the president.
U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 16, 2026.
GOP convention comes as Trump’s approval rating remains low
11:58 AM ET, September 9 2026, Emily R. Condon
As Republicans gather in Texas, President Donald Trump remains largely unpopular across the country, according to a slew of recent national approval rating polls. Here’s a list of some of them:
-
That same day, the NBC News Decision Desk released polling that the president’s approval rating sat at 36%, and only 41% of Republicans said they “strongly approve” of the president – a nearly 10 percentage point drop from when the poll was conducted in March and April.
August polling at-large told a similar story, with one poll from Marquette Law School reporting a 40% approval rating, but Americans largely disapproved of the war in Iran and expressed economic concerns across the board.
Still, Trump has defended his popularity, slamming reports as “Fake Polls” by “Radical Left Democrats” in an Aug. 24 Truth Social post.
“They’re putting them out at levels never seen before,” Trump said in the post. “They’re called ‘Demoralization Operations,’ where they try to demoralize Republicans so that they don’t go out and vote – But the actual Polls are tremendous, and the Spirit in our Country has never been higher.” USA TODAY is unable to identify the polls that the president claims are tremendous.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Republican convention live: GOP kicks off midterm party in Dallas
Leave a Reply