Republicans held their first ever midterm convention this week with President Trump and Vice President JD Vance delivering remarks. CBS News' Zak Hudak has a recap.
Page A2From§Eachthe early evening edition — 11 September 2026
Republicans' own columnist calls their first-ever midterm convention a grift, not a convention.
As it ran on the front
Let's be clear about what happened in Dallas this week: Republicans held their first-ever midterm convention, a first-of-its-kind event the party built specifically to buck the president's approval numbers and defy historical midterm trends. President Trump and Vice President JD Vance delivered remarks. This is what strength looks like — sitting down, mid-cycle, calling everybody to Dallas is not the act of a party running scared. It is the act of a party that knows exactly what it's doing. Byron York, watching the run-up, called it one of the rare bright spots Republicans had going into the elections — a compliment, from a chief political correspondent, is a compliment.
Then another writer at the same paper, who has covered every Republican convention since 2004, filed their own verdict this week: "Trumpapalooza" is not a convention. They called it a grift. Not my word — theirs. "This is not a convention of the whole Republican Party," they wrote. I don't — that's not — okay, if the writer who's been in the room since 2004 says it isn't the whole party's convention, maybe it isn't the room I was describing.…
…(cont) Nine days before the doors even opened, Senator Susan Collins had already made her decision: she would not attend. A source familiar with the situation said it's long been her practice not to attend conventions — practice, mind you, meaning this isn't news, meaning nothing to see here. Except she is the most vulnerable Republican senator on the ballot this fall, and the first-ever midterm convention, built to help members exactly like her, opened without her in the building.
And on Friday, after it was over, Senator Rick Scott — who has run for Senate leader twice himself — was asked whether he'd back Majority Leader John Thune if Thune runs for another term. "We're going to have a race again in November," Scott said. "Let's see who is going to run." That's not an endorsement. That's a man measuring the drapes. Thune, for what it's worth, didn't speak at the convention himself.
So: the writer who's covered every convention since 2004 says this one's a grift, not a convention. Fine. They were there. I wasn't.
“They throw themselves a first-ever convention in the middle of an election, and their own writer calls it a grift, not a convention — that's not a gaffe, that's a receipt. Their most vulnerable senator skips town, and Thune can't even get his own conference to promise they'll keep him as leader. When the people running the party won't back each other, the tab still comes due for everybody else.”
“It's the party's first-ever midterm convention — that's energy, that's momentum, that is not a grift. Fine, an Examiner writer who's covered every one since 2004 called it exactly that, but that's just one opinion, everybody's got one — no, wait, that's their own writer, that's not nothing. And Thune skipping his own convention's speech doesn't mean the leadership question is settled, it just means — yeah, okay, it means something.”
The receipts
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who has mounted two bids for Senate Republican leader, says he is undecided on whether to support Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) if he runs for another term leading his conference. “We’re going to have a race again in November,”
· Susan Collins to skip Republican midterm convention from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
· I’ve attended every GOP convention since 2004. ‘Trumpapalooza’ is a grift — not a convention from the morgue, 9 Sep 2026
· Hasan Piker backlash and midterm convention offer Republicans rare bright spots before elections: Byron York from the morgue, 9 Sep 2026
· Republicans head to Dallas for first GOP midterm convention: What to know from the morgue, 9 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.