Dem
47
GOP
53
On Tuesday, Donald Trump announced that the Republicans will hold a midterm convention September 9-10 in Dallas. He thinks people will want to watch Republican politicians saying "Democrats bad" for a couple of days. He even called it a rally. He will undoubtedly be the star performer. We doubt that even Fox will broadcast it gavel to gavel.
Modern national conventions have little drama. There was a time when the presidential and vice presidential nominees were really selected at the convention, which made them exciting. Then there was a time when at least the veep was chosen at the convention. Now both of them are known days or weeks in advance. This convention will have no drama at all and some Trump supporters might watch when he is scheduled to speak, but probably not when other politicians are speaking. Does anyone want to watch Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), Ken Paxton, or Michael Whatley? Does anyone even know who Michael Whatley is? Wasn't he the Lord of the Dance? House candidates are probably going to get even fewer viewers.
Democrats did consider holding their own convention, but didn't think it was worth it. Besides, the DNC is broke while the RNC has so much money it doesn't know what to do with it. So why not hold a pointless convention that no one will watch except diehard MAGA fans who are going to vote for you anyway, no matter what?
Actually, though, the convention is not risk-free for the GOP. There is little chance that anything that is done or is said will increase Republican vote totals in the elections. Again, the viewers are going to be hardcore MAGA and not low-interest voters who might become energized for the midterms. Meanwhile, you're going to have a lot of people, from Trump on down, peacocking because they have a TV audience. There's every chance that one or more people could say something that will not play well with voters. It could be something racist or sexist, but it could also be something (probably from Trump himself) about the economy that amounts to "I really don't care." He's said several such things in just the last couple of weeks, and the odds go up the more he feels the imminent pressure of a blue wave. (V)