By Nathan Layne, Nandita Bose and Steve Holland
DALLAS, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Republicans used their Dallas convention on Thursday to portray Democrats as dangerous extremists ahead of November's midterm elections, with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas accusing them, without substantiation, of being part of a "new and dangerous red-green alliance" between communists and Islamists.
The remarks reflected the central message of the two-day gathering, where speakers sought to energize Republican voters by focusing
on immigration, crime and cultural issues – frequently seeking to vilify Muslim politicians – as the party confronts questions about its future beyond President Donald Trump.
Later Thursday, Vice President JD Vance was due to face his highest-profile test yet in a keynote speech as Republicans weighed who might carry Trump's movement forward after he leaves office. With Trump constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, many Republicans view Vance as the leading contender to carry the Make America Great Again movement forward.
The unusual party meeting was also dominated by Trump's proposal on Wednesday to pay every U.S. adult a $5,000 "Trump dividend" if his party wins the November 3 congressional elections.
Even if Thursday's program was supposed to showcase Vance, the visual cues inside the 20,000-seat arena pointed overwhelmingly to Trump. The president was scheduled to speak again to cap the made-for-television event in Dallas.
Oversized photographs of Trump lined the walls, including the image of him raising his fist after an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a towering floor-to-ceiling poster showing him standing before massive steel coils at a factory. Even the credential lanyards issued to reporters, delegates and guests featured various images of Trump.
Empty seats remained visible across the American Airlines Center, with open patches on the floor and large sections of the arena still unfilled. From the stage, speakers largely stuck to the party’s core midterm pitch, portraying Democrats as extreme and attacking them on immigration and crime.
RUBIO AND CRUZ IN THE MIX
Trump has been known to ask people around the White House whether they see Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the frontrunner to lead the party after he leaves office.
Beyond Vance and Rubio, other Republicans are jockeying for position, including Cruz, who told MS NOW in an interview last month that Republicans were not unified behind Vance and that the party was headed for a broader debate over its direction and priorities.
Addressing the convention, Cruz portrayed the Democrats as too extreme, saying, without substantiation, "They hate Christians, they hate Jews, they hate the capitalism, they hate the Constitution and they hate America," Cruz said.
House Speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, took a similar approach in a subsequent speech. "Communism begins with the premise that there is no God," Johnson said, calling the ideology "anti-American."
Rubio was not scheduled to speak as he was wrapping up a three-nation tour of South America.
With Trump, 80, no longer atop the ticket, many Republicans view Vance, 42, as well positioned to carry forward the party's populist, anti-establishment agenda, citing his youth and appeal to activists who now form the movement's core.
"I think he has positioned himself really well to be that kind of generational leader the party needs," Stefano Forte, president of the New York Young Republican Club, said of Vance.
The convention's focus on Trump – some Republicans have dubbed it "Trumpapalooza" – amounts to a risky bet that he can mobilize the voters who carried him to the presidency two years ago, despite opinion polls showing his popularity is at an all-time low.
It remains to be seen whether Trump can bring back critical swing voters who have drifted away from Trump's party amid growing dissatisfaction with the cost of living and the war on Iran.
"I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot," Trump told the convention on Wednesday night, a line that may have pleased Democratic campaign strategists just as much as MAGA voters.
A MARINE, YALE LAW GRAD AND AUTHOR
A Marine veteran and Yale Law School graduate, Vance first gained national prominence through his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," which recounted his upbringing in a working-class community battered by industrial decline and his family's struggles with poverty and addiction.
He has argued for using tariffs and other government policies to support domestic manufacturing, embraced restrictive immigration policies and opposed a more interventionist U.S. foreign policy, positions that have made him a central figure in debates over the future direction of the Republican Party.
While Republican officials had described the convention as an opportunity to tout Trump's policies, the first day of the convention focused heavily on attacking Democrats as extreme on topics such as transgender women in sports and border security – cultural issues that animate many Trump supporters.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne, Nandita Bose and Steve Holland; Writing by Joseph Ax and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Howard Goller)
