Empty seats, socialism and Trump dominate the Republican midterm convention

The two day party at the American Airlines Center in Dallas highlighted the GOP's biggest asset in getting out the vote — Trump — and its greatest obstacle in convincing voters to keep Republicans in power — also Trump.

In his keynote address Wednesday, Trump made headlines for an impossible promise to give American adults $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate, and reiterated the GOP's messaging that paints November as a choice between "common sense versus crazy."

One of the more common pleas was for Trump supporters to support other Republicans.

"I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot," the president implored the first day.

"You know what happens if you don't vote? You go to hell," he said on the second night.

After suffering defeats in 2024, Democrats have now expressed more enthusiasm to vote, have flipped a number of state and local seats and improved their margins with nearly every voter demographic group in elections across the country since then.

At the same time, the Republican base has fractured over key issues in the last 18 months, including the war in Iran, the handling of the release of the Epstein files, surging gas prices and rising costs driven by tariffs.

Trump is a singular force in motivating the current Republican base to vote and his magnetism was on display at the convention, which featured credentials emblazoned with his likeness, pictures of the president on display throughout the arena and speeches that praised him as one of the best leaders in American history.

As Republican candidates hone their general election message, a frequent feature of the speeches was the personal attacks and insults hurled at Democratic opponents that reiterated the view that the election was about stopping Democrats from having any power and challenging Trump's agenda.

There were speakers who touted the sweeping tax and spending cuts passed last year, executive action Trump took to undo Biden-era initiatives and a promise that, if still in power, Republicans would keep working to make things better for Americans.

Part of the convention's messaging paints the Democrats as a party that has capitulated to more extreme factions of the left. Several speakers said that extreme left believes in policies that Republicans say are a danger to the American way of life.

Communism. Socialism. Marxism. Terrorism.

All of these were mentioned repeatedly, especially in relation to Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.

"You don't sympathize with terrorists, you don't sanitize extremism, and you sure don't ask the people of Michigan to send you to the United States Senate while surrounding yourself with people who despise America," former Rep. Mike Rogers said of his opponent. "Abdul El-Sayed may be comfortable with that crowd. I certainly am not. He's a con man. I'm a law man."

Wednesday, Trump said that America "has beaten communism before and we will beat it again."

"In state after state, the Democrat establishment has been overthrown and replaced by crazed lunatics and radicals," Trump said. "They call themselves Democrat socialists, but actually they're communists. They're not socialists. They're long beyond socialists."