Most voters probably know that the nation’s major political parties gather every four years for a major national convention, at which they formally nominate their respective presidential tickets. The quadrennial events also offer the parties an opportunity to put their best foot forward while they have the national spotlight.

But there’s been some talk in recent months about something more unusual: a midterm convention.

Axios reported almost a year ago that Democratic officials were exploring the possibility of a large-scale 2026 convention, and Donald Trump announced online soon after that he was “thinking of recommending” the same idea. House Speaker Mike Johnson said the president called him to discuss the possibility, and he told Trump, “That’s genius.”

As the process moved forward, the Democratic National Committee ultimately decided not to bother with such a gathering, but earlier this year the Republican National Committee approved a plan for a midterm convention, and it now appears that it’s actually going to happen. The Associated Press reported:

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Republicans will hold their first-ever national convention ahead of November’s midterm elections, an unusual event aimed at boosting turnout in races that will decide whether the party maintains control of Congress.

The convention will be held in Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10.

The announcement came by way of a presidential statement published to his social media platform in which Trump boasted that the gathering would be “fantastic” and “historic,” adding, “It will be a RALLY like none other!”

The fact that the party is going through with this isn’t too surprising — the House speaker said in April that he “can’t wait for the midterm convention that we’re going to have,” leaving little doubt that this was likely — though events like these have become highly unusual.

The DNC held midterm conventions in the 1970s and ’80s, before giving up on the practice ahead of the 1986 cycle. (That decision didn’t hurt the party: Democrats gained five U.S. House seats and eight U.S. Senate seats that year.)

Whether Republican officials appreciate it or not, there are two main problems they should probably keep in mind. The first is that holding a national convention is extremely expensive. Indeed, when Democrats abandoned their midterm conventions several decades ago, it was largely because they simply saw better uses for limited financial resources.

Republicans have a significant financial advantage over Democrats, but that doesn’t make it any easier to justify throwing several million dollars at an unnecessary event in September.

But there’s another dimension to this that’s just as important: One of the underlying points of a national convention is nationalizing an election cycle — and given how very unpopular the incumbent Republican president is, the party should be going out of its way to localize the midterms.

Indeed, it’s likely that many Democratic officials are looking forward to the GOP’s convention, since it will give the minority party an opportunity to do what it wants to do anyway: connect Republican candidates and officeholders to Trump.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post Republicans to hold rare midterm convention, creating two problems appeared first on MS NOW.

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