Republicans are bailing on Trump’s midterm convention

Dozens of Republican lawmakers do not plan to attend President Donald Trump’s shambolic midterm convention in Texas next week, Politico reported on Wednesday. Lawmakers gave myriad excuses that largely boil down to one central theme: They think the event will hurt their reelection chances more than help.

Politico reported that 45 Republican members of Congress they spoke with said they do not plan to go to the two-day convention, where the GOP will make its pitch to voters about why it deserves to keep its congressional majorities despite the fact that they stood in silence as Trump trashed the economy with his idiotic tariffs and ill-planned war in Iran.

The lawmakers who put their name to their reasoning did not say that being seen with the deeply unpopular Trump was why they wouldn’t attend. They instead gave lame excuses like having preplanned commitments. For instance, New York Rep. Nick LaLota said he would be visiting colleges with his daughter, and Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole said he has a dove-hunting event, an excuse that is a little too on the nose.

However, privately, the lawmakers admitted that they think the event will be unhelpful to their party. After all, Trump is incapable of staying on a helpful message, and his rambling at a televised event will only remind Americans of why they hate the grifter in chief so much.

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“You shouldn’t be having to rally your base at this point,” an anonymous member of Congress, who isn’t attending the event they described as “a waste of time” and a “mess,” told Politico. “You should be trying to convince independents. Independents are not attending nor watching the midterm convention.”

Republican lawmakers are also bristling at the eye-watering cost of attendance, especially given that Trump himself is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars that he has so far refused to spend to help Republicans’ election odds.

The starting price of entry is suggested to be $25,000, which gives those who pony up the ability to book one singular hotel room (at an extra cost), two measly tickets, and the right to attend a “welcome reception.”

“I didn’t want to go anyways. That made it easier,” said another Republican lawmaker too chickenshit to put their name to their criticism, regarding the entry price.

Ultimately, Trump is an albatross around the necks of Republicans—even in states and House districts he easily carried in 2024. 

Indeed, Charlie Cook, the namesake of the Cook Political Report, published a column on Tuesday in which he said that the three most plausible outcomes for the election will be Republicans having a “bad, really bad, or truly horrible” night.

“Let’s start with the most likely scenario: That this is a ‘really bad’ election for Republicans, losing between 26 and 35 seats in the House, and either four or five seats in the Senate. That’s the average outcome for post-World War II midterm elections in both cases. Either one would end the Republicans’ governing trifecta,” Cook wrote.

It’s why Republicans in districts once seen as safe for the GOP are scrubbing Trump from their campaign websites, in the hopes they can overcome his immense unpopularity. Attending a poorly planned midterm convention would make their uphill climb even steeper.

At the end of the day, however, Trump commandeering the news cycle with a rambling primetime speech will still be a problem for Republican lawmakers—no matter how far they are away from the convention geographically.

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