From the Floor: Night One in Dallas, and What Comes Tonight

Wednesday at American Airlines Center was the first night of the Republican Party’s first midterm convention. Programming ran from mid-afternoon until about 10 p.m. There was no platform to adopt and no nominee to confirm. The hall was a turnout rally for November, built around President Trump’s record and the candidates who have to defend it without him on the ballot.

The afternoon opened with host-committee co-chair Heather Washburne and RNC Chairman Joe Gruters, an invocation from Pastor Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist, and a run of Texas names. Rep. Monica De La Cruz shared the stage with her brother Carlos, the GOP nominee in the 35th District. HUD Secretary Scott Turner talked waste and fraud at the housing department. Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Derrick Van Orden worked the early block. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Whip Tom Emmer followed, then North Carolina Senate nominee Michael Whatley, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Sens. Tim Scott and John Barrasso, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, and a medical pair, Dr. Eithan Haim and nurse Vanessa Sivadge. Border residents Wanda and Ron Liptow spoke as well.

The middle hours were a candidate conveyor. Rep. Brandon Gill of Flower Mound framed the midterms as mainstream versus extreme. National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez introduced Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who used a short slot to pitch his “Protecting the Texas Promise” tax plan, praise Trump as the most effective partner Texas has had, and call James Talarico the most radical Democrat in the state’s history. Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, Oklahoma lieutenant governor candidate T.W. Shannon, Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick, comedian Adam Carolla, New York House hopeful Mike LiPetri, and Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins filled the same stretch. Attorney General Todd Blanche closed that hour. CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, Florida gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds, Arizona’s Jay Feely, Michigan’s Capt. Mike Bouchard Jr., Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and UFC fighters Justin Gaethje and Bo Nickal, the Allen High School product, took the last window before the keynote. Lee Greenwood brought Trump out the way he has for years.

Trump spoke nearly two hours, starting a little after 8:15 p.m. Central and wrapping near 10. He asked the room to pretend he is on the ballot, said handing the next decade to Democrats “will be a tragedy,” listed about 35 swing races, and promised a $5,000 “Trump dividend” to adult citizens if Republicans keep Congress, to be spent in the United States. He ran through tax cuts, the SAVE America Act, the border, sports, and Iran, picked up Paxton’s Senate race and said he would come back to Texas for him “twice or three times” if he had to, and told the hall Thursday’s remarks would be shorter.

Plenty of people who matter this week did not take the Night One microphone. Vice President JD Vance was in Dallas and is Thursday’s keynote; he did not close Wednesday after the schedule flipped and Trump took both nights. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump Jr., former press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Speaker Mike Johnson, Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson are on tonight’s program, not last night’s. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stayed off the partisan stage under a State Department rule that keeps Senate-confirmed officials away from this kind of event. Senate Leader John Thune was not on the roster. Erika Kirk, now running Turning Point USA, sat in the audience through Trump’s keynote on the eve of the first anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s killing. Photographers caught her in the hall. She was not listed as a speaker. First Lady Melania Trump did not attend.

Tonight the building does it again, about 56 items this time. Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas opens the faith slot. Cruz, Abbott, and Patrick get home-state time. Johnson speaks. RFK Jr., Leavitt, Don Jr., and Mayor Johnson are in the later hours. A 9/11 tribute and a Charlie Kirk remembrance are on the card, with TPUSA Faith’s Lucas Miles in the mix. Vance keynotes. Trump closes.