This week on the Hill: Political spotlight turns to GOP midterm convention in Dallas

The political world’s eyes are focused this week on Dallas, where Republicans are turning up the volume at a two-day convention meant to bolster the GOP’s chances in this year’s midterms.

The event is being billed as a unifying and electrifying celebration of President Trump’s second term in office that is being put on by the Republican National Committee. The GOP hopes it will raise money for candidates and help the party turn out voters in the fall.

But plenty of Republican lawmakers, particularly those in battleground districts — and even some Texas incumbents — appear to be worried about the focus on Trump, whose approval ratings are low.

A number say they will not be able to make it or were noncommittal about their attendance. Republicans also will be fighting for public attention with the opening games of the NFL regular season.

Some Democrats will stage specific counterprogramming in Dallas. Others will conduct business as usual on the campaign trail around the country.

The nation will pause to honor the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on Friday, a quarter century after planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. A fourth plane crashed near Shanksville, Pa.

Back on the campaign trail, two northern states will hold primaries, New Hampshire on Tuesday and Rhode Island on Wednesday. Only one more state, Delaware, is left before the primary season is over and the race to the general election begins nationwide.

All of this leads up to a blitz of a week in Congress, when both chambers are briefly in Washington for the last time before Election Day. The Senate will remain in session through Oct. 2, but Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) canceled the House’s last two weeks as members are eager to campaign back home.

The Republican National Committee holds a first-of-its-kind midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday and Thursday. Trump, Vice President Vance, Cabinet secretaries and other Republican lawmakers and candidates are expected to speak.

Trump speaks at the Pentagon for the 25th commemoration of 9/11.

Rhode Island and New Hampshire voters will nominate candidates for various races down the ballot. Both are generally Democratic states, but the Senate and governor races in New Hampshire are already giving Democrats, literally, a run for their money.

Congress is out for one week before both chambers return — the House only briefly — to finish up pre-midterm must-dos.

GOP convention and Democratic counterprogramming descend on Dallas

The Republican National Committee’s midterm convention runs Wednesday and Thursday and is expected to be a midterm hype rally, featuring speeches from Trump and Vance, to energize the Republican base.

Held in Dallas, the convention also puts a key battleground Senate race into focus.

But there are also some tensions within the party as the convention comes closer. For one thing, many Republicans aren’t able to make it, citing scheduling conflicts and needed campaigning back home.

A GOP operative told The Hill the event came together fairly recently, though Trump first mentioned it last year.

The Hill learned earlier this week that the National Republican Congressional Committee distributed more than 2,000 tickets to the convention, including to around 100 members and candidates who had confirmed their attendance.

Trump, administration officials and Republican congressional leaders are expected to tout what they have achieved in nearly two years of Republican control of the White House and Congress and encourage voters to show up to the polls to defeat socialism, which Republicans are increasingly tying to Democrats.

Democrats will be looking to challenge the GOP’s message.

The Dallas Democratic Party will host a rally at City Hall at 6 p.m. local time Thursday, the same time Trump is set to speak at American Airlines Center about 1 1/2 miles away.

Some House Democratic lawmakers will also be in Dallas, partnering with their colleagues from the area and state party officials to counteract the Republican messaging.

Trump will return from Dallas to speak at the Pentagon on Friday, where he will deliver remarks to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The New York Times reported that Trump had been interested in giving a speech at Ground Zero, which is not allowed, though he also spent the anniversary at the Pentagon last year.

Vance will be at the Ground Zero ceremony in New York City with former Presidents Biden, Obama, George W. Bush and Clinton. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) will also attend the ceremony.

Other administration officials will visit a ceremony in Shanksville, near where Flight 93 crashed on 9/11 after passengers thwarted a hijack.

On Tuesday, Trump will host 9/11 first responders and other officials at the White House, where a steel beam from the World Trade Center’s South Tower that was recovered from Ground Zero will be on display.

The beam has traveled around the country in recent weeks, appearing at pop-up events to commemorate 9/11 in 21 states.

As the primary season wraps up, voters in New Hampshire and Rhode Island will narrow down their party’s nominees in the last primary wave of the year.

In New Hampshire, both parties have a clear Senate front-runner emerging, but the general contest is somewhat of a toss-up as former Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) attempts a comeback bid, while Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) hopes to keep the seat being vacated by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) blue.

Pappas faces progressive Karishma Manzur in the Democratic primary. While Pappas is the favorite, polls have shown the race is tightening .

On the GOP side, Sununu faces a challenge from Scott Brown, but polling shows the former senator, who comes from a popular political family in the state, performing well ahead of Brown.

In the general election, Pappas has a narrow lead in some ratings, but the state is not a slam dunk. The state also has a gubernatorial race, where current Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) is favored to win the general election.

New Hampshire Democrats will also nominate a candidate to replace Pappas in the House, though the competition there is not a progressive versus a moderate, as many Democratic primaries have been, but more of an insider-versus-outsider battle, another common theme from this election cycle.

The two front-runners are Shaheen’s daughter Stefany Shaheen, a former city councilor in Portsmouth, and Maura Sullivan, a Marine Corps veteran. Shaheen has accused Sullivan of being funded by “special interests,” like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, while Sullivan has attacked Shaheen as being “more of the same.”

On Wednesday, Rhode Island Democrats likely will renominate Sen. Jack Reed (D).

Raymond McKay is the only Republican running for the GOP in the Senate race. Election analysts have rated this seat as a safe one for Democrats this cycle.

The competitive Democratic primary race in Rhode Island is the gubernatorial race, where incumbent Gov. Daniel McKee faces a formidable challenge from CVS executive Helena Foulkes, a rematch of their 2021 clash.

Neither candidate received a majority of votes at the June convention, leading the state party not to endorse either candidate.

Meanwhile, Republicans in Rhode Island will pick between two candidates to challenge incumbent Democratic Rep. Seth Magaziner, who is in the more vulnerable of the state’s two Democratic House members. The Republican candidates are Vic Mellor, a former Marine, and Stephen Skoly, an oral surgeon.

Congress is out before a last blitz of pre-midterm work

The House and the Senate are both out this week for the Labor Day recess.

Both chambers return Sept. 14, but the House will leave again at the end of that week and remain out through the midterm elections. The Senate has plenty on its to-do list, but since the House has passed the Senate version of a government funding stopgap bill, the biggest item — funding the government — is checked off.

The Senate is scheduled to be out after Oct. 2. That month is always a critical time at home for senators who are running for reelection, especially the handful of tight races that will determine the majority. But many in the MAGA world want the Senate to stay in as long as it takes to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, Trump’s top-priority voter ID bill that has already failed the Senate multiple times.

Some Republican senators threatened to hold up the August recess over the SAVE America Act, although ultimately, none did. The pressure from conservatives online to keep the Senate in town has only intensified as the midterms grow closer.