Live updates: Republicans gear up for Day 2 of first-ever GOP midterm convention in Dallas

North Carolina Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley ripped his opponent, former Gov. Roy Cooper, over the stabbing of Iryna Zarutska.

Zarutska was a 23-year-old Ukrainian woman who moved to Charlotte in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. Zarutska’s alleged killer, DeCarlos Brown Jr., was released early from prison by Cooper.

“This is the radical Democrats’ playbook to raise costs on our families, to impose a reckless tax and spend agenda, to release violent criminals from prison, like Roy Cooper did in North Carolina,” Whatley said. “Cooper set up a revolving door that put criminals back on the streets again and again and again.”

Whatley also noted the Senate Leadership Fund’s “Felon Friday” email series, which highlights a criminal allegedly released early under Cooper’s leadership.

The second night of the Republican National Convention has begun with its first speaker.

The program has a slightly expanded list of speakers, 56, in comparison to Wednesday’s 53. Thursday’s focus is set to be on affordability and families, and highlight Trump and Republicans’ policies aimed at helping each.

Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are among the biggest speakers, with Trump set to conclude the convention with a final speech.

Tributes to assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was murdered one year ago, are also likely to feature heavily.

A crowd of left-wing protesters blocked parts of traffic in Dallas on Thursday.

The crowd seemed somewhat larger than the protesters that gathered on the first night of the convention. The protesters carried signs displaying various left-wing slogans and calls to action, including praise of socialism, criticism of billionaires, and calls to stand up to or oust Trump.

“Down with billionaires, we need socialism,” one sign read, displaying pictures of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Trump.

Wider shots of the protest showed a relatively small crowd, though they blocked traffic at a critical point.

Trump explained why he couldn’t give out $5,000 checks until after the midterm elections, a common criticism of the proposal, arguing that Democrats would squander them if they got into power.

“The Democrats can’t do it because with them it’s negative growth,” Trump said. “With us, it’s so positive.”

“So we’re taking in $21 trillion. No country has ever taken in anywhere near that,” he added.

The president credited this boost in income to tariffs.

Republican leaders are taking advantage of their in-person midterm convention to bring in more dollars for their crucial races in the 2026 midterm elections.

Trump is holding a fundraiser with the Republican National Committee on Thursday that is set to rake in $250,000 per attendee, including an additional $88,600 per photo taken with the president. Likewise, Vice President JD Vance has been doing additional fundraising work from the executive branch side of the GOP, bringing in over $2 million from the convention alone, according to Politico.

On the congressional side, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) teamed up with Texas GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxton to hold a fundraiser for the Republican running in Texas’s toss-up race for the open upper chamber seat. Paxton spoke last night about how his opponent, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, is the “most radical Democrat in Texas history, but he’s also the most well-funded,” asking Texans for their “prayers,” “votes,” and “support” from the podium at American Airlines Center.

DALLAS — House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast defended the Republican midterm convention for not countering criticism of the war with Iran more directly.

“The president spoke about it at length last night, right?” Mast told the Washington Examiner. “I thought he made some really good points in ways that the president makes them.”

Mast underscored the contrast President Donald Trump drew during this address on Day 1 of the convention.

“They always say there’s contrast elections,” he said. “Easy contrast for me. We had Lee Greenwood onstage singing about being proud to be an American. And I’ve known Lee for many, many years. You’re not going to have Lee Greenwood on the stage at some Democrat convention. That’s not happening, talking about being proud to be an American. They’re the opposite of that right now.”

“They’re not proud to be Americans,” Mast continued. “They’re not proud of closing down the border and saving American taxpayers’ dollars because we’re not paying for illegals’ healthcare, transportation, lodging, food, everything else. They’re not proud that we’re going out there and no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime … These aren’t things that make them proud. We’re proud Americans. They’re not.”

Mast, a veteran, also dismisses speculation that he was being considered to become the next secretary of the Army.

“I don’t think that they could take anybody out of the House of Representatives,” he said. “I’m honored that my name was thrown out there, honored to be considered. But you can’t take anybody out of the House.”

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson said Trump’s proposed $5,000 dividend checks are “exciting” but told the Washington Examiner he wants to see the details.

When pressed by reporters on whether Republicans have an appetite for the level of spending the checks would require, Hudson said he wasn’t “going to comment on a policy that I haven’t looked at yet.”

He continued, “I heard him last night in a speech, but I want to look at the details and talk to him about it before I talk publicly about it.”

The checks, if sent out, are projected to cost over $1 trillion. It is unclear how the Trump administration would fund the proposal.

Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul el Sayed are hitting each other hard in the lead-up to Friday’s 25th remembrance of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as Rogers plans to focus on the anniversary in his speech before the GOP convention.

Throughout the campaign so far, Rogers has ripped el Sayed over his relationship to socialist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who previously said America “deserved” 9/11. Although Piker has since walked back the comment, it is one of several controversial and antisemitic statements he has made, and several Democrats have either disavowed or distanced themselves from the left-wing commentator. El Sayed campaigned with Piker during the primary and has refused to disavow the streamer entirely.

Rogers plans to hone in on el Sayed’s relationship to Piker in his speech before the GOP convention in Dallas on Thursday night, juxtaposing Piker’s 9/11 comments and el Sayed’s association with the streamer with Rogers’s record as an FBI agent.

Click here to read more from the Washington Examiner.

Twitch Streamer Hasan Piker reacted to a “meat pic” of himself featured in an advertisement aired during the Republican National Committee’s first-of-its-kind midterm convention.

An image of Piker posing in his underwear was included in a video played during the event that characterized Democrats as communists and made the streamer appear as a representative of the entire party that is facing an ideological war.

Piker was on a live stream during the convention and reacted with extreme shock to his image being shown to the entire Dallas arena.

Click here to read more from the Washington Examiner.

DALLAS — Attendees, candidates, and party operatives poured into 95-degree Fahrenheit heat for the first-ever GOP midterm convention, bringing with them high energy and a clear focus on President Donald Trump.

In the days leading up to the party’s first midterm convention, many political experts and members of the press billed it as a Trump lovefest, and among the attendees interviewed by the Washington Examiner, it lived up to that description.

The excitement around Trump was palpable. Attendees repeatedly called him their favorite president, with some traveling hundreds of miles for the chance to see him. One Tennessee couple drove 12 hours to attend, calling the experience a “lifetime” opportunity, while another attendee described the atmosphere as “electrifying.”

Click here to read more from the Washington Examiner.

Republicans are heading into the second and final day of the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention on Thursday, with Vice President JD Vance, President Donald Trump, and several of the party’s top congressional figures set to take the stage as the Republican Party looks to charge full speed ahead into a challenging 2026 election cycle.

Trump spent nearly two hours Wednesday night delivering the convention’s keynote address, touting his administration’s record and laying out the stakes for Republicans in November. He also pledged to give every U.S. adult a $5,000 “Trump dividend” if Republicans retain control of both chambers of Congress, saying the payment would be funded by the economy and would come with the condition that recipients spend the money in the United States.

Trump was initially expected to close out the convention Thursday, but he and Vance swapped speaking slots. Vance, who is widely viewed as one of the top contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028, will headline the second night before Trump returns for a shorter address expected to last about 15 minutes.

Click here to read more from the Washington Examiner.

DALLAS — Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) did not mince her words regarding Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-PA) decision to introduce Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) at the Republican midterm convention.

“I have to tell you I was disappointed with that stunt,” Dean told the Washington Examiner. “I know John Fetterman. I actually ran against him in 2018 briefly. We were [in] about a five-person primary for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania at the time, and I got to know and really like him and his family and his values.”

Dean, however, was less direct when asked whether Fetterman should remain a member of the Democratic Party.

“I think that’s entirely on John,” she said. “I will tell you from the ground, from suburban Philadelphia, my constituents are livid. Those who went out and knocked doors for him-they’re absolutely livid.”

Live coverage will resume tomorrow.

Click here to follow the Washington Examiner’s latest coverage of the 2026 midterm elections.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said the energy at the midterm convention was “contagious” after Trump stepped off stage and emphasized the need for Republicans to show up at the polls.

“This election is about turnout, turnout, turnout. Here in Dallas, Texas, the energy is contagious,” Cruz said. “If you don’t want to hand the country over to the crazies, you’ve got to come out and vote in November, because every one of the Marxists and Islamists who have taken over the Democrat Party, they’re all showing up to vote.”

Cruz had floated the idea of making a presidential bid in 2028 in recent weeks, but said his attention is focused on Republicans winning this November.

DALLAS — President Donald Trump spent nearly two hours Wednesday night varnishing his own legacy and setting the stakes for Republicans in the 2026 elections.

Trump delivered the keynote address on the first night of the Republican midterm convention. He’d previously been expected to close out the convention’s second night but ended up swapping spots with Vice President JD Vance, the likely GOP nominee in the 2028 general election.

In spite of the scheduling change, or perhaps because of it, the most powerful man in the world leaned into his table-setting role, declaring that the results of Election Day on Nov. 3 “will decide whether our country stumbles at the starting gate of the next 250 years or surges forward and never ever looks back.”

Click here to read more from the Washington Examiner.