“It will be a real Trumpapalooza,” a big, colorful circus show centered around the US president, promises Joe Gruters, who, as chairman of the Republican National Committee, is something like the general secretary of the Republicans.
Donald Trump seems to be looking forward to it: it will be “fantastic.” He had the idea for this event and is also paying for it. But the latter is not a problem, after all it is about saving the nation.
The two major parties in the USA traditionally hold such election party conferences every four years to mark the start of the hot phase of the presidential election campaign. Delegates from all parts of the country officially elect their candidate for the White House, who then has the chance to introduce themselves to US citizens.
The party convention today and tomorrow in Dallas is the first to take place before midterm elections. At the beginning of November, Americans will vote on all seats in the House of Representatives and a third of the seats in the Senate. And the candidates for this have long been determined.
However, the event is not about fielding candidates. Trump's hope is that a big, colorful political circus will change the mood in the country. Because so far all polls show that the Democrats can hope to make up ground in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
A surprising number of Republican politicians who would like to be elected in November publicly responded to the invitation to Dallas with a blatant eye roll and declared that they were unfortunately unable to come and could not come.
Some of them probably find it incomprehensible why they should drop out of the election campaign for two days instead of cleaning doorknobs in their constituency - especially since entry to the party conference costs $25,000, even for elected officials.
Others apparently think it is harmful to seek proximity to the president almost two months before the election. This apparently also applies to Representative Robert Wittman from the state of Virginia.
The moderator at Fox News asked him the same question three times: "Will you invite Trump to a campaign event in your district?" Wittman squirms and gives the same answer three times: his plan for the election campaign is to take to the streets and talk to citizens.
People like Wittman don't have it easy, says political scientist Thomas Gray from the University of Texas at Dallas: "Some more moderate Republicans are signaling that it's not so good for them to be associated with this event - because it's primarily about a president who is unpopular."
Showing up at Trump's side now makes it easier for the respective Democratic opponents to associate these Republican candidates with the president.
Depending on the opinion poll, only between 30 and 40 percent of Americans currently approve of Trump's administration, as representative opinion polls show.
Above all, the constantly rising cost of living and the Iran war are costing the president more and more approval. Even on perhaps his strongest issue, migration policy, the president no longer has a majority of people behind him.
Political scientist Gray describes a dilemma in which Republican candidates in particular are now running in contested states, i.e. the so-called swing states, and in contested electoral districts.
These politicians would have to please both moderate voters and the hard core of Trump's supporters. Ultimately, the president's biggest fans are also needed for an election victory: "These candidates can't say that they have a different opinion than Trump. But they also can't say that everything is going great in the country."
The event management's current plan shows that the party conference will revolve entirely around Trump. At prime time, i.e. in the evening, the focus is on what the president has achieved and what he would like to continue to tackle. Trump will appear and speak on both days of the event, as will Vice President JD Vance on the second.
The federal Republicans recently ran their first election campaign ads. Also at the center: Trump - but not the women and men who will be on the ballot in November.
One of the spots says that Trump has brought about the biggest tax cuts in history - now people should help him finish the job by voting for Republicans.
It is doubtful that Republican candidates will actually be able to credibly distance themselves from the president. Because it has become difficult for voters to distinguish the Republicans in Congress from Trump. Whether in the Senate or the House of Representatives - most Republican representatives have long limited themselves to the role of yes-men.
Ultimately, some candidates will think twice about whether they can really afford to stay away from the party convention in Dallas. Because the president is sitting on a bulging war chest for the election campaign. According to Trump, it now contains almost a billion dollars.
The president himself decides who gets money from this fund to finance his election campaign. And Trump is known for valuing little more than loyalty. So anyone who lacks demonstrative loyalty to Trump must fear that they will not be considered.
Either way, not too many Americans are likely to pay attention to the Republican convention. The National Football League starts the new season on both evenings. The games take place exactly when the vice president and the president respectively will speak.
Either this was not taken into account when scheduling the party conference. Or even in the Republican Party we know that the "Trumpapalooza" in Dallas may serve to stroke Trump's ego, but it will not decide the outcome of the midterm elections.
