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\n

President Donald Trump will be at the center of this week\u2019s GOP midterm convention. Many of his fellow Republicans are hoping he doesn\u2019t make it all about him.<\/p>\n

The parade of lawmakers, candidates, donors and party officials now headed to Dallas for the two-day spectacle are counting on Trump to make a compelling pitch on the national stage before voters hit the polls.<\/p>\n

According to interviews with dozens of Republicans, they are largely hoping for a two-pronged approach aimed at getting the president\u2019s committed supporters off the sidelines: a focus on what they call Democrats\u2019 extreme positions and the accomplishments of the Republican Congress \u2014 most of which are now more than a year old.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunism vs. common sense,\u201d Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) said in an interview, calling the event a \u201cscene-setter\u201d that should stay laser-focused on \u201cwhat\u2019s on the line\u201d for voters in the election.<\/p>\n

Republicans have reasons to be wary. Trump\u2019s approval ratings are at record lows for his time in office, and many swing-district GOP lawmakers are torn<\/a> between running from an unpopular president and alienating his base of committed supporters.<\/p>\n

There is little evidence Trump is content to let rank-and-file Republicans run away from him. The first pair of national midterm ads funded by his cash-rich political operation put Trump at the very center.<\/p>\n

One ad begins with<\/a> businessman Dana White extolling Trump as \u201cthe toughest, most resilient person that I’ve ever met.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other is more up congressional Republicans\u2019 alley, with a Trump voiceover running through a litany of tax cuts<\/a> included in last year\u2019s \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if not all agree Trump is the party\u2019s best spokesperson at this point, they are eager to see a new effort to promote the tax cuts, which were enacted in July 2025, and want to see them touted anew in Dallas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s incredibly important that we highlight what we’ve accomplished,\u201d Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said in an interview. \u201cThat’s the perfect venue for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a great opportunity for us to brag about what the Republican Party has done the last year and a half,\u201d added Rep. Craig Goldman (R-Texas). \u201cSo certainly talking about the One Big Beautiful Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Van Orden and Goldman are attending the convention, which kicks off Wednesday and ends Thursday, many other lawmakers and candidates are staying back in their districts<\/a>. Some of those Republicans said they have scheduling conflicts or simply want to campaign back home.<\/p>\n

But there are also qualms about Trump\u2019s obsession with priorities that many of them consider off-message ahead of the midterms \u2014 such as pressuring Congress to take up the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act.<\/p>\n

As GOP lawmakers begged Trump to get serious about tackling the high cost of living, the president has instead openly scoffed at \u201caffordability\u201d as an issue concocted by Democrats to hurt Republicans.<\/p>\n

He refused for months to help pass a major legislative package over the summer designed to help lower housing costs, and his trade wars and ongoing conflict with Iran have contributed to persistent inflation. A recent import deal designed to address rising beef prices came at the cost of upsetting American cattlemen.<\/p>\n

Speaker Mike Johnson brushed off a question last week about the risk of having candidates show up at a Trump-focused event given his disapproval ratings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the president’s idea, which is why he’s getting credit for it, and it’s rightfully so,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI think it’s going to be an extraordinary opportunity for us to get a couple of nights on national television to talk about our extraordinary record of achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Republicans said the president was well positioned to send a message of \u201cpromises made, promises kept.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitics 101 is just telling folks what you’re going to do, and then come to Washington and do it, and then go back and tell them what you did,\u201d said Rep. Mark Harris (R-N.C.). \u201cWhen you look at President Trump’s agenda, securing the border, we’ve done that. That he wanted to make the tax cuts permanent, we’ve done that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeace through strength \u2014 and I think we have moved in that direction,\u201d he added. \u201cObviously, we got detoured to this journey over in Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there is one consensus message Republicans want the convention oriented around, it\u2019s the choice between the legislative record Trump will be touting and a Democratic Party that they argue has moved way too far to the left \u2014 especially as progressive candidates, some of them democratic socialists, continue to win key primaries.<\/p>\n

Rep. Brian Jack (R-Ga.), a deputy chair of the House GOP campaign arm, said \u201cyou’re going to see on full display each night a contrast that we’ve never seen before in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’ve got Republicans that are campaigning on commonsense ideas. You’ve got Democrats that are being drawn to the absolute most extreme left of their party,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I expect each night to see that on full display.\u201d<\/p>\n

RNC national press secretary Natalie Baldassarre also said in a statement that the event would \u201cput front and center Democrats’ desire to abolish police and prisons, raise costs, and strip away our freedoms,\u201d while also promoting \u201cRepublicans\u2019 historic achievements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democratic Party has taken a turn for the worse recently,\u201d added Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), who is in a competitive race and not attending the convention. \u201cAmerica needs to be quite aware of that as they make their decision here in November.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaLota is just one of scores of Republican members who are choosing not to travel to the convention \u2014 which has a price tag of $25,000 and up for lawmakers attending \u2014 but who have an interest in how the event goes off and what impression it gives voters.<\/p>\n

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) called the midterm convention \u2014 the first held since Democrats did them in the late 1970s and early 1980s \u2014 \u201can interesting concept\u201d and said he would be paying close attention to the size of the television audience. But he said he would be back in his safe red district campaigning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m going to look forward to listening to it on the radio as I’m driving down the road, going from one spot in my district to another,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump will be at the center of this week\u2019s GOP midterm convention. Many of his fellow Republicans are hoping he doesn\u2019t make it all about him. The parade of lawmakers, candidates, donors and party officials now headed to Dallas for the two-day spectacle are counting on Trump to make a compelling pitch on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}