The Republican National Committee is doing something unusual for a midterm cycle: throwing a convention. September 9-10 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, and Republicans have spent months getting ready for it with one specific objective — making the Democratic Party’s socialist wing the star of the show.
The strategy is elegant in its simplicity. You don’t need to caricature today’s Democratic Party when its own candidates and activists are perfectly willing to do the job themselves on camera. GOP operatives spent months compiling footage of Democratic figures — including Hasan Piker and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico — that they’ll use throughout the convention to paint Democrats as outside the mainstream. “Our video trove is endless,” a person involved in the planning said.
Endless. The word is accurate and the irony is complete. The Democratic Party that spent years demanding Republicans denounce their most extreme voices is now sending those extreme voices to Congress, state legislatures, and mayoral offices — while their own establishment wrings its hands and endorses the ticket anyway.
The convention’s primary target is Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s new Democratic Senate nominee who says Israel doesn’t have a right to exist, wants to abolish ICE, and is backed by a man who praises Mao Zedong. Republicans will particularly focus on El-Sayed because Michigan is a swing state Trump carried in 2024 — and because El-Sayed represents, in one convenient package, everything the McLaughlin polling shows Americans reject by 68%.
Talarico gets his own segment for declaring that God is nonbinary and that Jesus would want socialized medicine. The DSA co-chair who went on Fox News and confirmed she wants to abolish the Senate, the Pentagon, the prisons, and the presidency will presumably receive her own primetime moment.
The convention will be framed as a “socialism telethon,” with progressive politicians and activists serving as “recurring characters” throughout the event.
RFK Jr. will be there to highlight the MAHA movement and the administration’s health agenda. Vance will appear September 9 to discuss the anti-fraud task force he chairs. Trump takes center stage September 10 — though he’s expected to be in the building both nights, because of course he is.
This is how you win a midterm. Not by running away from the contrast, but by putting it on a giant screen in prime time and making every swing-district Democrat answer for it. James Carville threatened to leave his party over this. John Fetterman has been calling them communists for months. Bill Maher is mocking them.
The DSA’s video trove is apparently endless. Republicans have it. Get the popcorn ready. September 9-10. Dallas. Socialism-Palooza. Don’t miss it.
