Republican National Committee Midterm Convention is a rare mid-cycle gathering of party leaders and delegates President Trump has called as a way to rally the party faithful ahead of November's contests.
Page A2From§Eachthe midnight edition — 6 September 2026
RNC unveils full midterm lineup with Trump headlining both nights, then scrambles to fill the seats.
As it ran on the front
I want you to picture the marquee: Dallas, Wednesday and Thursday, "the Greatest RALLY of them all," in the president's own words, Trump keynoting Night One with Vance also on the bill, and the president himself, by his own account, "hanging around for an earlier closing" on Night Two, with music. This is not a party bracing for anything. This is the Republican National Committee's first-of-its-kind midterm convention, announced in full on Saturday, and I will call it strong because it is strong, and if some of the seats are still empty — I didn't say empty. I said strong. Strike that.
Here is the actual story. On August 31st, a source familiar with the situation told the Washington Examiner that Senator Susan Collins won't be at the convention, calling it her longstanding practice to skip these things, nothing pointed about it. By September 3rd, The Hill was reporting that some candidates and lawmakers are making the same call as Trump's numbers slide and Republicans weigh the real possibility of losing the House this fall. That is not a boycott. That is scheduling, at scale, for reasons nobody wants to name out loud.…
…(cont) And on that same September 3rd, an operative familiar with the planning told the Examiner that organizers had held a call to figure out how to move the tickets still sitting unsold, less than a week before doors open, for a two-night event that is already being called "Trumpalooza." I'm not going to sit here and tell you a last-minute push to fill an arena is a sign of strength. It's a sign of desperation — it is a sign, I mean, of enormous anticipation. That's the line. I'm sticking to it.
So: a full marquee, a headliner both nights, at least one senator with a scheduling conflict she's had for years, and the people who built the stage working the phones to fill it. Democrats, watching all this, can't agree on whether it's even worth countering. Neither can I, honestly, and I write the talking points.
“They put out a full lineup like it's sold out, then spend the week on the phone trying to give away the tickets — that's not a rally, that's a going-out-of-business sale. One senator's already skipping town before the doors open, and some of her colleagues are doing the same math. When the party throwing the party can't fill its own room, ask who they think is going to fill the House.”
“This is the biggest midterm convention the party's ever run — two nights, the President headlining the whole thing, or headlining one night and sticking around for the other, same difference. Nobody's skipping, a senator just has a scheduling conflict, and organizers are being thorough about outreach, not — did I say outreach? Forget I said that.”
The receipts
President Trump is set to speak on Night 1 of the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) Midterm Convention in Dallas on Sept. 9. “The Greatest RALLY of them all,”
The Republican National Committee announced on Saturday the full list of keynote speakers who will stump for Republican candidates at the midterm elections convention next week. The first-of-its-kind event, to be held in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday and Thursday, will feature President Donald Trump as the keynote speaker on Night One…
· Susan Collins to skip Republican midterm convention from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
· Some Republicans are planning to skip Trump’s GOP convention from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· Republican midterm convention organizers make last-minute push to fill arena for Trump from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· Democrats split on how to counter Trump’s midterm convention from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.