Democrats seek to counter RNC’s ‘Trump-a-palooza’ convention in Dallas

Democrats are seeking to seize on the Republican National Committee’s first-of-its-kind midterm convention with plans for counterprogramming around the two-day Dallas bash as the party eyes a Senate flip in the red state.

Republicans are hopeful the so-called “Trump-a-palooza” next week excites the base about turning out amid a bleak midterm outlook for the GOP and concerns about low attendance , timing and President Trump’s approval rating. The toss-up Senate race in Texas, where Trump-backed Attorney General Ken Paxton faces Democrat James Talarico, will be a major focus.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen organizations are planning to rally in downtown Dallas to pull focus as top Republicans address the convention crowd. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also announced on Friday that a four-member House delegation would be headed to Dallas to underscore the contrast between the two parties.

“I don’t know who we have to pay to thank the Republicans for doing this at this time, but I’m happy they’re coming. I hope it gets as much airtime as possible,” said Matt Angle, founder of the Lone Star Project, a Texas-based Democratic PAC. “It gives Democrats another event to organize around and another opportunity to make the case in a convincing way.”

Around 100 members and candidates are set to attend the Dallas convention, and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has distributed more than 2,000 tickets, a source familiar told The Hill. The RNC has said thousands will be in attendance. Vice President Vance will cap off the first night with a speech, and Trump will deliver the closing-night keynote address. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson are among the top GOP names expected to attend, as is Senate hopeful Paxton.

“We are excited to be in Dallas for a first-of-its-kind midterm convention that will show the American people exactly what’s at stake in November,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a Thursday release previewing the event.

Though a significant number of candidates and lawmakers have shared plans to skip the convention — citing costs, conflicts and the campaign trail — the event has been billed as a chance to highlight GOP candidates in high-stakes races and to draw a contrast with Democrats on top issues, including affordability, immigration and healthcare.

But Democrats say they’re eager for voters to see that contrast.

“Americans are being crushed by rising costs. Republicans don’t care—they’re in Dallas, celebrating an out of touch President whose tariffs and wars are making things worse. We’re going to hold them accountable,” said Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) in a post on X.

Crow was announced on Friday as part of the four-member House delegation that’s headed to Dallas to join in on counterprogramming, alongside Reps. Robert Garcia, (D-Calif.) Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.). They’ll partner with local leaders and the Texas Democratic Party on the ground.

“While swing seat House Republicans try to hide from their record of raising costs on working families, gutting Medicaid to fund tax breaks for billionaire donors and supporting a reckless war of choice in Iran, House Democrats will be present to hold them accountable,” Jeffries said in a release.

Multiple progressive groups, labor unions and others are planning demonstrations in Dallas on Thursday. And just before Trump takes the stage on Thursday evening, a rally is set for the steps of City Hall, organized by a dozen groups including Next Generation Action Network, Powered by the People, Texas Democrats and the AFL-CIO, according to the event page.

“Our main goal is not just simply to be a counter protest, not just to be against something. Our main goal in this protest is to be for a new future, to be for a new administration, to be for a government that is more inclusive, a little bit more ethical, a little more humane for any marginalized groups,” said Samantha Mitchell, a co-leader of Indivisible Dallas, which is involved in counterprogramming efforts.

And while Republicans have said the convention will be a great opportunity to rev up their voters in the Lone Star State, where Paxton and Talarico are neck-and-neck for the Senate and several House seats are in play after GOP-friendly redistricting reshaped the state’s congressional maps last year, Democrats and other organizers are also hoping that the focus on those must-win contests actually fuels their own supporters.

Indivisible, a progressive grassroots organization that started during Trump’s first term , recently announced Texas as part of its Battlegrounds program, making the red state a top target for the midterms.

“That is huge. No one has considered Texas to be a swing state or a battleground state in three decades,” Mitchell said of the national organization’s move. “This is the first time, the first year that I’ve ever felt actually, really hopeful about the possibility that we could really swing the state, even more so than 2018 with Beto.” That year, Beto O’Rourke came within a few points of toppling Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Talarico, whose bid has surged Democratic hopes against controversy-laden Paxton, is also planning to counterprogram the convention with a statewide “Love Thy Neighbor” food drive, the campaign announced on Friday.

“Next week, billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to clink champagne glasses and toast their own corruption,” Talarico said in a release. “We’ll be doing something different.”

Decision Desk HQ’s latest polling average shows Talarico up by roughly 3 points over Paxton in the Senate race, with just two months to go until the general election. The race is considered a toss-up that narrowly favors the Democrat.

Multiple House fights in Texas could also help tip the lower chamber’s balance of power this fall, including Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s (D-Texas) seat in the 34th Congressional District, which DDHQ considers to lean Democratic and Cook Political Report rates as a toss-up.

Meanwhile, Trump’s approval rating is roughly 16 points underwater in the latest DDHQ averages , with just 40 percent of Americans approving of his job handling.

In Texas, which voted for Trump in each of his three runs, his approval rating was 20 points underwater as of August, according to YouGov/The Economist analysis . On top of national frustrations with high prices and the war in Iran, Texans have also been ruffled by the Trump administration’s plans for border wall construction inside Texas’s Big Bend National Park and data center builds.

But Democrats still have an uphill climb to gain ground in the longtime red stronghold this cycle.

“There’s a sort of a little lurking challenge here, which is that, while some of the gains that Trump made among Hispanics and in urban areas in the 2024 election have receded, they haven’t receded back to historical baselines, and so Democrats and the Democratic Party, which itself is viewed very negatively here, still has a pretty steep hill to climb,” Joshua Blank, research director for the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, told The Hill last week.

A question for the convention is “whether or not this type of business does more to help Republicans shore up their ranks,” Blank said, “or whether it actually creates a rallying point for Democrats to reinvigorate their voters in an election in which they’re not necessarily trying to make Trump the centerpiece.”