Two days before Donald Trump's midterm convention opens in Dallas, Texas, the party that promised the largest such gathering in a decade has been running a public lottery for free tickets, dangling front-row seats and VIP treatment to whoever enters. The RNC has found itself in a tricky spot after building the event around Trump, whose approval rating is the lowest of his political career. A number of Republicans have also decided to skip the convention rather than be seen on camera celebrating an unpopular president who could drag down their prospects of re-election.
The RNC has said it expects about 20,000 people at the American Airlines Center and that the convention will be bigger than the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That four-day convention that drew an estimated 50,000 delegates, donors, journalists and visitors to the city, and at which Trump accepted the nomination and unveiled JD Vance as his running mate. But this time around, it appears the RNC isn’t taking any chances.
A text message sent to party donors as recently as last week encouraged them to ask for “FREE TICKETS,” while some GOP operatives were told last week that there are still seats available for the event. Donors who click on the text message link were entered into a lottery that would also bestow a front-row seat upon one lucky winner. And for those willing to pay, $250,000 will get a donor a seat at a roundtable with Trump —and a commemorative photo if they want to shell out another $88,600.
For $20,000, donors get to be “honorary delegates” and receive a Texas shirt and cowboy hat. But many of the higher-profile potential attendees have already made public plans to skip the entire thing, with some balking at the $25,000 cost of attending and others annoyed at the prospect of spending days away from the campaign trail for what will amount to a multi-day rally for someone who will never appear on a ballot again. Representative Tom Barrett of Michigan, a first-term Republican defending a competitive seat, is not going.
"I can't control what the president's going to say at the convention, but I can control where I'm at," Barrett told Politico last week. Senate Majority Leader John Thune does not appear on the published speaker list, though he is expected in Dallas for fundraisers. And even though President Trump will speak twice this week, First Lady Melania Trump is not on the speaker list.
The convention itself runs Wednesday and Thursday, from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Central Time, with 109 speakers and programming items on the schedule released last week. Vance delivers Wednesday's keynote.
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