By Nathan Layne and Steve Holland
Aug 24 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's Republican Party is increasingly viewing its first-of-a-kind midterm convention in Dallas next month as crucial to regaining momentum at a time when opinion polls show voter frustration over the economy and the Iran war, according to party officials, donors and convention planners.
When Republicans announced the convention earlier this year, some strategists dismissed it as a distraction as campaigns entered the final stretch.
They questioned the need for a national gathering with no official party business.
Now, after months of negative headlines tied to the war and rising living costs, party officials see the September 9-10 gathering as their best opportunity to rally voters behind Trump's agenda as Democrats mount a serious challenge to Republican control of both houses of Congress in the November 3 election. Some Republicans, however, remain skeptical it can meaningfully shift voter sentiment.
The party officials said the event offers a platform to refocus voters on Trump's tax cuts, immigration policies and other achievements. Organizers plan to spotlight Americans they say have benefited from those policies while portraying the Democratic Party as increasingly dominated by socialist ideas and activists, according to a source familiar with the planning.
The party plans to put Trump at the center of the convention, a tactic some strategists warn could backfire by drawing attention to a president with a low approval rating who has repeatedly urged Americans to endure the economic costs of the Iran war.
Republican National Committee spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre said the convention would rally voters behind Trump's agenda, including efforts to lower drug prices, cut taxes and secure the southern border with Mexico.
"President Trump turns out voters like no other candidate, and this convention will provide the momentum needed to expand our majorities in November," Baldassarre said in a statement.
CANDIDATES FACE TRUMP CONVENTION DILEMMA
It remains unclear which congressional candidates will speak during the two-day event. Advisers to three campaigns in competitive districts told Reuters they had yet to be informed whether their candidates would be offered speaking slots.
Reuters contacted representatives for Republican candidates in 37 competitive U.S. House races and eight closely contested U.S. Senate races to ask whether they planned to attend the convention and deliver a speech.
Of the 45, only one campaign offered a substantive response: Republican Representative Tom Barrett, seeking reelection in a tight race in Michigan, who plans to skip the convention and remain on the campaign trail.
"He's in a tough reelection campaign and his voters are in his district," said Jason Cabel Roe, a strategist working for the Barrett campaign.
Still, most of the dozen party insiders interviewed by Reuters, including convention planners and Republican National Committee members, described the convention as the party's best chance to energize Republican voters, whose enthusiasm trails that of Democrats, according to polls.
"There is no better salesman for the country than Donald Trump. I don't think it's going to hurt at all," said Rob Steele, a Republican National Committeeman from Michigan.
Ray Washburne, a Republican donor co-chairing the convention with his wife, told Reuters he expected about 30,000 attendees, a figure that would exceed the seating capacity of the American Airlines Center in Dallas by some 8,000 people. He said organizers raised $42 million and will fully fund the event.
The timing, just at the start of the school year, could pose challenges for some attendees. One state party chair told Reuters he had returned many of his delegation's allotted seats after members said they could not make the schedule work.
While declining to provide a complete speaker list, Washburne said most of Trump's cabinet secretaries would attend, along with "pretty much everyone running in a hot race." Vice President JD Vance will speak on September 9, followed by Trump on September 10.
Dave Wilson, a South Carolina-based Republican strategist, said he was skeptical a rally-style convention would move the needle unless it was used to unveil a major response to voters' top concern: the cost of living.
"I don't know that we're going to see a convention in Dallas change what happens in Cheyenne, Wyoming, or Charleston, South Carolina," Wilson said, invoking places far from the convention to illustrate his point. "I don't think the average Republican voter even knows there's a convention going on."
CANDIDATES SEEK DONORS AND SPOTLIGHT
Though it falls outside the traditional four-year presidential election cycle, the convention is expected to serve a familiar purpose as a fundraising and networking hub for candidates and donors. The RNC has already launched a website selling official convention hats, T-shirts and mugs.
Washburne said the event would give candidates significant media exposure to promote their campaigns. U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton of Texas, whose campaign has been dogged by scandal, was someone who could benefit from the attention generated by a convention in his home state, Washburne added.
With Trump's approval rating at 33%, some Republicans questioned the wisdom of the event. One strategist working on a competitive race, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it made little sense to tie candidates more closely to Trump when many are trying to focus on local issues and win over independent voters.
Oscar Brock, an RNC member from Tennessee, said many candidates would feel obliged to attend the Dallas gathering to court donors and raise their profiles through media appearances, even as some remain wary of embracing Trump.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne, Steve Holland and Richard Cowan; Editing by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)
