In the era of President Donald Trump, any admission of weakness or wrongdoing has become increasingly rare, but tension over the future of the party could hardly be denied at last week’s midterm Republican convention in Dallas. While the floor and lower levels of the arena were well attended, the upper levels of the arena were sparsely populated—despite the GOP giving out free tickets leading up to the event.
“I will be the first to go ahead and say that it is a little concerning as a Republican that we have to be summoned in the midterms,” said Jason Fricks, a young Republican who drove down from Oklahoma to attend the convention. “That’s never been done before.”
The GOP sought to project a united front against what they called radical communism with a two-day lineup of speakers that regurgitated the same talking points and even the same jokes in an attempt to plaster over the public’s discontent with the high cost of living. They flaunted Trump’s tax cuts and aggressive immigration enforcement while targeting the Democratic Party’s left-wing figures, such as Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed. Their own controversial right-wing ideologues, who have publicly clashed over the party’s vision, could still be seen walking the halls of the American Airlines Center and emphasizing that the perceived threat of a socialist takeover was too great a risk to not vote Republican this November.
President Trump speaks at the 2026 GOP midterm convention in Dallas. (Photo by Eden Shamy )
Figures like the right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro, the failed Florida gubernatorial candidate and provocateur James Fishback, and conspiracist Laura Loomer, for example, could be seen rubbing elbows with devoted members of the MAGA base. All have expressed their concerns about losing to the Democratic Socialists of America, but all share deep disagreements on the level of acceptable overt bigotry, support for Israel, and whether Trump has gone far enough.
“While you might have frustrations with the Republican Party, I think we can all get behind good America first candidates up and down the ballot,” Fishback said in an interview with the Dallas Express, one of the many right-leaning outlets featured at the convention.
Fishback won only 10.5 percent of the vote in Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary this year, but his audience consists mostly of young conservative men who could shape the future of the party. That’s in large part because of Fishback’s Christian “America First” stance and opposition to the Iran war, which he believes Israel dragged the U.S. into—a framing that has won over conservatives who are skeptical of Trump’s foreign policy.
Fricks is one of those young men who’s been watching Fishback carefully from Oklahoma and was excited to meet him at the convention. The 20-year-old communications student is chairman of the Rogers State University College Republicans. Fricks said he disagreed with Fishback’s “comments toward the Jewish community” and his “comments toward Byron Donalds” (the Republican nominee for Florida governor), but he admired Fishback’s personality and ideals.
“He puts things like it is, and he’s not afraid to stand up and defend his beliefs,” Fricks said. “He wanted to put Florida first.”
Fricks said he also sees people like Vice President JD Vance, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and the late Charlie Kirk as the figureheads of the future conservative movement.
Convention-goers at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. (Photo by Eden Shamy )
The second day of the convention landed on the one-year anniversary of Kirk’s assassination and just a day before the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Speakers at the convention often spoke about both acts of extremism in the same breath, as well as the numerous attempts on Trump’s life, tying them into one narrative about the dangers that the radical left poses to the future of the United States.
“The hate that killed Charlie Kirk, that knocked down the Twin Towers, that led to two assassination attempts on President Trump, it just keeps getting worse and worse,” U.S. Senator Ted Cruz said. “And we are witnessing a new and dangerous red-green alliance: communists and islamists coming together and sweeping over the Democrat Party.”
Attendees wore red t-shirts and hats honoring Kirk, who has become the face of a deeply loyal and religious MAGA base. Like Fishback, Kirk’s often polarizing and unapologetic stances wrapped in Christianity connected with young men. Fricks said he considered himself “more of an independent, more outside the MAGA spectrum—but recently, with the passing of Charlie Kirk and the election of Trump, I have kind of come around.”
Few politicians have delivered that brand of Christian conservatism in the same edgy manner as U.S. Representative Brandon Gill. He is the youngest Republican in Congress, representing Texas’ 26th Congressional District in North Texas, at age 32. Gill walked onto the stage on the first night to loud cheers and shouts of “I love you Brandon!”
Gill’s love of leading questions and outright trolling of government officials during congressional committee hearings has turned him into a quickly rising star in the party and online.
“I think it’s only appropriate that we kick this convention off properly… with a land acknowledgement,” Gill quipped, met by laughter and surprise. Only an hour later, the longtime talk show personality Adam Carolla also began his remarks with a land acknowledgement that fell flat by comparison.
Gill was just one of many Texans who dominated the agenda. Hosting the convention in Dallas allowed the GOP to spotlight critical races in the state, including the newly gerrymandered districts that the party is hoping to flip this November.
Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz from the 15th District spoke early on day one and took shots at her opponent Bobby Pulido, an award-winning Tejano singer beloved in South Texas who is polling strongly despite Trump previously carrying the district by 18 points. She was introduced by her brother Carlos De La Cruz, who is seeking to join her in Congress from Texas’ 35th Congressional District outside San Antonio.
On day two, Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina received applause for talking about how he abandoned the Democratic Party and ran for Congressional District 28. According to Texas Southern University, Tijerina is also polling lower than his opponent, Henry Cuellar, despite the redistricting.
(Photo by Eden Shamy)
Attorney General Ken Paxton isn’t looking too hot either, according to polling, campaign finance reports, and even the president who endorsed him. Trump spent both nights of the convention acknowledging that Paxton is hard to look at, listen to, or vote for.
“I said I don’t like the way Ken dresses,” Trump said, backdropped by a crowd of supporters who waited hours for a position behind the president. “And then I said I don’t really like the way Ken talks. And then I said something that they really hated… I don’t really like the way he looks. I don’t like it!” The stadium erupted in laughter.
Trump insisted that voters pretend it was him on the ballot rather than Paxton to make the idea easier to swallow. He also pledged that he would return to Texas and other competitive states to rally voters in an all-out push to November. Those tactics might work for the loyal “Front Row Joes,” as Trump calls them, but not for the 51 percent of Texans who said they disapprove of Trump’s performance as president in the latest polling from the Texas Politics Project. That includes 14 percent of Republicans who said they somewhat or strongly disapprove.
“I have some friends who usually support Trump,” said Michael Rosenberg, who has attended two previous Republican conventions. “They’re seeing higher gas prices and higher inflation going around and things that affect their business, and they’re saying that they think this is wrong.” Rosenberg came all the way from New Jersey decked out in a big Uncle Sam hat, having lucked into one of the free tickets. He believes Trump has done a tremendous job during his presidency so far, but he said he can’t convince everyone that the war in Iran has been worth it.
Rusat Ramgopal, executive director of the GOP in Queens, New York said this year’s midterm convention offered a unique opportunity to bring the party together. He argued it should happen more often, pointing to the annual party conferences in places like the United Kingdom. While Republicans are apprehensive about losing seats in November, Ramgopil said he thinks the Democrats are actually far more divided.
“The Democrats are increasingly going down a socialist path,” said the New Yorker, repeating one of the convention’s core themes. “Who is the leader of their party? Is it Gavin Newsom or AOC? Is it Zohran Mamdani or Hakeem Jeffrees? That party is in such a disarray right now.”
Inside the American Airlines Center, which sat within an even larger security perimeter, convention-goers were insulated from the protests and rallies on the outside. The Texas Democratic Party held a press conference on day one led by Chairman Kendall Scudder and joined by fellow Dems from around the country. They called out Trump for the high cost of goods, citing his calamitous war on Iran and the trade war with Canada.
“We’re here to point out the facts over the farce. If you listen to what’s being said across the street, you might feel like you’re living in some separate reality,” Pennsylvania Congresswoman Madeleine Dean said. “The truth is that the average family lost nearly $3,800 to inflation and tariffs by President Trump.”
President Trump at the 2026 midterm convention. (Photo by Eden Shamy)
One protester did manage to burst the RNC bubble during Vance’s keynote address, waving the flags of Palestine and Mexico as he descended the steps of the stadium. The crowd broke into chants of “USA!” and pumped their hands against their chests as the protester was quickly escorted out by security.
The convention ended with a brief rehashing of Trump’s rambling two-hour speech from the night before and a tsunami of balloons as opera singer Chris Macchio belted out “America the Beautiful.”
Press and delegates waded across the floor through balloons waist-high, popping underfoot, and exited into the hot Dallas night still not quite knowing whether this unexpected convention and Trump’s leadership would carry them through the midterms.
The post Free Tickets, Familiar Jokes, and an Unsettled Party Grasping for Unity—and a Fight appeared first on The Texas Observer.
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