DALLAS – Republicans are kicking off two days of political pageantry aimed at blunting Democrats' momentum in the battle for control of Congress, holding their first-ever midterm election convention ‒ headlined tonight by President Donald Trump ‒ in a bid to boost GOP enthusiasm amid warning signs for the party.
Trump is rallying Republicans for the final push toward the Nov. 3 election with a big show in the Lone Star State featuring a long list of party leaders and candidates in swing districts.
The president's approval rating has sagged as the Iran war drags on and cost-of-living concerns remain top of mind for many voters, threatening to weigh down GOP candidates. Trump has turned to the mini-convention to provide a boostas the party struggles
to sell his second-term agenda.
The event starts at 4 p.m. CT today at the American Airlines Center with more than five hours of speeches and political programming touting GOP policies and blasting Democrats, who are staging counterprogramming. Republicans will have to compete with the first NFL regular season game, also airing Wednesday night, for television viewership.
Who is speaking at the convention today?
12:06 PM ET, September 9 2026, Zac Anderson and Joey GarrisonTrump is scheduled to take the stage at 9 p.m., but before that the GOP will showcase candidates in key battleground districts.
Among those speaking today are North Carolina Senate candidate Michael Whatley, Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton, Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, who is running for re-election, and Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins. The Real Clear Politics average of recent polls shows all four candidates trailing.
Candidates in competitive House districts, including Pennsylvania Rep. Rob Bresnahan and Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden, also will address the convention crowd, along with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds.
Republicans in competitve races skip GOP convention
11:59 AM ET, September 9 2026, Zac Anderson and Joey GarrisonWhile many of the GOP's top figures will be in Dallas over the next two days, not everyone in the party is excited for the event.
Some candidates in key districts are skipping the convention, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska. Both races are central in the fight for control of the Senate. Freshman Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Michigan, also is among those skipping.
"He’s in one of the toughest races in the country and his voters are in mid-Michigan, not Dallas," Jason Cabel Roe, Barrett's top campaign strategist, told USA TODAY. "Attending was never a consideration."
Some Republicans question whether the event helps battleground candidates. The convention comes just after Labor Day, as the campaign season kicks off in earnest, requiring candidates to take time away from talking to voters less than two months before Election Day. Being too closely tied to Trump also could be problematic for candidates in tight races. Just 4 in 10 voters approve of the president.
GOP convention comes as Trump's approval rating remains low
11:58 AM ET, September 9 2026, Emily R. CondonAs Republicans gather in Texas, President Donald Trump remains largely unpopular across the country, according to a slew of recent national approval rating polls. Here's a list of some of them:
- Only 32% of Americans approved of Trump in a Focaldata/Financial Times poll released Sept. 6.
- That same day, the NBC News Decision Desk released polling that the president's approval rating sat at 36%, and only 41% of Republicans said they "strongly approve" of the president – a nearly 10 percentage point drop from when the poll was conducted in March and April.
- On Aug. 17, a Reuters/Ipsos poll reported only 33% of Americans approving of Trump.
August polling at-large told a similar story, with one poll from Marquette Law School reporting a 40% approval rating, but Americans largely disapproved of the war in Iran and expressed economic concerns across the board.
Still, Trump has defended his popularity, slamming reports as "Fake Polls" by "Radical Left Democrats" in an Aug. 24 Truth Social post.
"They’re putting them out at levels never seen before," Trump said in the post. "They’re called 'Demoralization Operations,' where they try to demoralize Republicans so that they don’t go out and vote – But the actual Polls are tremendous, and the Spirit in our Country has never been higher." USA TODAY is unable to identify the polls that the president claims are tremendous.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Republican convention live: GOP kicks off midterm party in Dallas
