Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. Not the Republicans struggling to campaign amid a war against Iran that seems to have no offramp. Not the voters who can’t understand why energy costs are through the roof and trips to grocery stores feel like extortion.
Not the business owners who can’t forecast quarter-to-quarter outlays because tariff policy seems as capricious as the weather. Yet here we are, about to start an unsolicited Republican Convention for the midterms, programmed around President Donald Trump, whose polling is in the gutter and who many of his party’s leaders view as nothing short of an annoyance. The spectacle is set to start Wednesday in Dallas, where the cheap seats start at $25,000.
The GOP has a total of 12 hours of programming scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday nights—the vast majority of it set to be speeches by Republican candidates and incumbents about what’s at stake in these upcoming elections. Almost every aspect of the convention has been designed by Trump. The first night will end with a keynote address from Trump.
The following night is to conclude with Vice President J.D. Vance’s address—and closing remarks from Trump. This sort of half-time extravaganza by a political party is not normal in midterm election years and even political diehards aren’t conditioned for it.
The fact that it’s coming as Trump is deeply unpopular and Democrats are enjoying tremendous tailwinds suggests the President is chasing a dopamine hit more than staging a useful rally. As Republican contenders are trying to build distance between themselves and the White House, Trump has vowed to make himself the fulcrum of this election season. The White House is operating as though there’s no greater force in American politics than the boss because, frankly, they’re not wrong.
But the enthusiasm gap is real. A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll released last week found 68% of Democrats enthusiastic about the election, while that Republican figure stood at 59%. The same poll found an eight-point gap favoring Democrats in a generic ballot.
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