The Republican Party's first national midterm convention ended Thursday night at the American Airlines Center, two nights in which President Trump spoke twice and Texas' race for U.S. Senate dominated the Texas programming.
Trump spoke both nights. Organizers had scheduled him for one, then added the second. On Wednesday he delivered the opening night's keynote. On Thursday he took the stage last, after Vice President JD Vance's keynote, to close the event.
The convention had no platform to adopt and no delegates to count. RNC chairman Joe Gruters called it a "Trumpapalooza," and the Denton County Republican Party, citing the RNC, told its members it was "a ticketed fundraiser and rally, not a traditional national convention."
The schedule ran six hours each afternoon and evening, from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., with more than 100 speakers and segments over the two nights.
The $5,000 proposal
About an hour into his Wednesday keynote, Trump said every adult American citizen would receive a $5,000 payment after the midterms if Republicans keep the House and Senate. "If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000," he said.
He did not say how the payments would work or whether he would ask Congress to authorize them, and compared them to the Trump Accounts for children and last year's "warrior dividend" for service members, both of which Congress funded.
Democratic members of Congress, gathered across the street from the arena on Thursday, called the proposal an "empty promise."
The Senate race at the center
Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate after Trump endorsed him over Sen. John Cornyn in the primary runoff, spoke Wednesday, presented an economic plan and attacked his Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico of Austin. "Let's transition him and his crazy ideas out of Texas," Paxton said.
At a Democratic event the same day, Talarico said Paxton was "lying to the people of Texas" with a new advertisement that used an AI-generated version of him.
Trump said he would return to Texas two or three more times to get Paxton elected. On both nights Trump also joked about Paxton's clothes, appearance and way of speaking, and on both nights Trump called him the greatest attorney general in America.
Closing the convention Thursday, with the camera on Paxton in the crowd, Trump said, "I don't know if he's going to ever speak to me again, but you know, I don't care as long as he wins."
Most recent polls show Talarico with a narrow lead. Trump's political operation bought $10 million in streaming and digital advertising in Texas the previous Saturday to support Paxton, and a Texas Politics Project poll last month put the president's job approval among Texas voters at 43%. Early voting begins in less than six weeks.
Who spoke
The Texas lineup included Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Sen. Ted Cruz, along with Rep. Brandon Gill of Flower Mound, Rep. Monica De La Cruz and congressional candidates Carlos De La Cruz, Eric Flores and Tano Tijerina.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, who was reelected in May 2023 and joined the Republican Party later that year, spoke Thursday about his goal of making Dallas the country's next financial capital, which he calls "Y'all Street."
Abbott, who is seeking a fourth term against Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, called the election "a choice between common sense and crazy" and said Republicans would "keep Texas red." He did not mention Hinojosa by name.
