Unless you've been living under a rock, you already know the Republican National Committee and Donald Trump just kicked off something nobody's tried before. Starting tonight, the GOP is holding a two-day midterm convention in Dallas, an unconventional move built for one purpose: resetting the media narrative before the 2026 midterms.
Trump delivers the keynote address Wednesday night and returns for the closing remarks on Thursday. More than 11 years after he rode down a golden escalator and rewrote the rules of American politics, it’s still very much his party, and this convention is just more proof of that.
The strategy behind all of this is pretty straightforward. Republicans want to brand Democrat candidates as radical and out of step with mainstream America, which won’t be hard at all. And, of course, another key objective will be to nationalize individual House, Senate, and gubernatorial races by tying local candidates to the party's socialist wing.
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Of course, as we all know, midterm elections typically function as a referendum on whoever sits in the Oval Office, and Trump's approval numbers aren’t strong right now. That combination usually spells trouble for the party in power, which is exactly why a splashy, unprecedented convention format is a gamble. Pull off a good week in Dallas, and Republicans buy themselves a new narrative heading into November. Fumble it, and the referendum dynamics take over anyway.
So will it work? I'll admit I'm skeptical.
We expect the networks to cover presidential nominating conventions because that's tradition. A midterm convention has no precedent, so there's no playbook for how the media handles it or whether outlets bother covering it at all, live or after the fact. Which networks even air Trump's speech Wednesday night? That answer alone will say a lot about how this experiment plays with anyone outside the political junkie bubble.
Even assuming coverage happens, it's an open question how much the public actually cares.
Democrats, notably, didn't even attempt a midterm convention of their own, and there are only a few explanations for that. Maybe they didn't have the money, which is entirely possible since they’re in debt. Maybe their strategists concluded a convention wouldn't move a single vote. Or maybe, and this is the one I'd bet on, they simply don't have a message beyond “Orange man bad.”
Should the polls change as a result of this week and the GOP exceed expectations in November, then midterm conventions could become a permanent feature of the political calendar. And even if the polls do not move at all, the convention might still have a beneficial effect on morale and help turn out the base, since this is a crucial factor in a midterm year when turnout makes all the difference.
But it’s unlikely to make a difference. That said, as far as I'm concerned, the best strategy this fall is to just keep Democrats on the defensive about the socialists taking over their party. The socialist wing of the party is the base. You either get Democrat candidates to defend the socialist wing or condemn them, and either option is problematic for them.
Live convention coverage runs both nights starting at 7 p.m. ET. Check out our live blog for the best coverage of all.
