What We REALLY Learned From Trump's Midterm Convention
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What were Mark’s initial takeaways from the Republican midterm convention in Dallas?
Everybody, Mark Halpern with NextUp. Thank you for being here. All Nexters, as we've cleared the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, I want to visit with you for a little bit, as we say in Dallas, to talk to you about my takeaways from what happened and what it means for me going forward for the midterms. You never know sitting in a in a city, not in the convention city, watching it. not talking to voters around the country. It's a lot of guesswork, but I'm a pretty experienced at this guesswork. So I'll tell you what I think. First of all, uh, one of the big takeaways fundraising, as I reported over the convention time in Texas, not a coincidence, Elon Musk is going in big in the race, including, uh, helping Paxton and other candidates in Texas.
And there were a lot of private meetings in Dallas, uh, between donors, their representatives, and Republican officials to get those wallets open. And I believe the Musk contributions that he's pledged are going to open up others. And that's a big factor. Republicans are counting on a huge financial advantage spent on mostly negative ads and field organizing to make a difference. So that's a big thing in Dallas that you didn't really see on the TV screen. Second is the president's messaging. They're not running away from making this campaign about Donald Trump. And in fact, from one of the signature moments of the whole two day event was when Donald Trump asked everybody in the hall and presumably watching at home to raise their hands and take an oath to their president.
Please raise your right hand. I pledge. to the greatest president in the history of the United States. That loves us so much he can't even breathe. that I will go out with my family, my friends. I'll do it anyway. I don't care if I'm registered or not. I'm going to try and cheat like hell like they do. There's never been bigger cheaters. I don't care. I am going to go out, and I'm going to get my friends, my family, and we are going to vote on November 3rd, or we are going to vote before that.
You know, it might seem a little hokey, but George W. Bush always said to folks, he learned after he lost his first election when he ran for the House, and he asked a guy if he'd voted for him. And the guy said, no.
How is Elon Musk’s Texas investment reshaping Republican fundraising strategies?
And he said, why not? He said, you never asked me to. And so Bush always said, you always would ask for the vote. He'd always say at the end of campaigns when he's running for president and governor, he'd say, I'm asking you for the vote. Trump basically asked everybody, please go vote. If you like me, please go vote for other Republicans. I don't know how effective that will be, but it takes head on. this issue, which is the president's unpopular with a lot of Americans, but for Republicans to do well, they need those who like him, who don't always vote when he's not literally on the ballot, to follow his admonition and turn down to vote. Third thing that I think is super interesting and important is J.D.
Vance. Marco Rubio tamped down any expectation he might run for president during this week. Vance met with a lot of the donors and others, convention attendees in Dallas, and he gave a speech on Thursday night that was extremely well received. And chanting in the hall about how he'll be the next president, chanting 48 times. Because if he wins, he'd be the 48th president. And just kind of the symbolic almost passing of the torch between Trump and Vance was palpable, according to many of the folks who were in Dallas. And I think if Vance wants the nomination, I think the events of this week makes that even more likely than it was before. And I thought it was pretty likely before. Fourth thing that I think happened in Dallas is Republicans demonstrated the same thing.
The reason they wanted to do a convention, the reason you have these conventions, you want to get a sense of unity, of momentum, of keeping getting the party really united behind a message. And while people talk about it being only for the base, not all those messages are for the base. And I think the best example of that was Bobby Kennedy.
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