The two-day convention that Republicans are holding on Wednesday and Thursday is the first of its kind in nearly 50 years. President Trump has summoned members of his cabinet and a few dozen of the party’s top candidates to Dallas to celebrate him and promote his administration’s accomplishments heading into midterm elections in which he is not on the ballot.
If Mr. Trump were popular, this might be seen as helpful for fellow Republicans, but polls show that many Americans have grown unhappy with his leadership on domestic, foreign and economic issues. This event is perhaps his last big opportunity before November to convince Americans that he has the country on the right track.
Republicans, despite some private grumbling, have mostly gotten publicly on board with Mr. Trump’s convention extravaganza. But do not expect significant critiques of his administration from the stage in Texas.
Here are five key questions for the president’s Republican midterm convention:
Is a two-day Trump rally helpful for Republicans?
Mr. Trump’s approval ratings are quite bad — 38 percent in the New York Times polling average.
In a pre-Trump era, candidates in battleground races would not want to tie themselves to a president with such poor numbers. But Mr. Trump has positioned himself as the sun of the Republican Party’s solar system, and the party’s midterm candidates drift away from him at their own political risk.
Mr. Trump has immense financial power over Republican campaigns — “this is my money that I control,” he said last week of his super PAC’s hundreds of millions of dollars. He has also shown little inclination to allow fellow Republicans to oppose his agenda.
Just a few of the convention speakers announced by the Republican National Committee are in battleground races. They include three of the party’s top Senate candidates: Senator Jon Husted of Ohio, former Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan and Michael Whatley, a former R.N.C. chairman running in North Carolina.
By this point in their campaigns, all three have tied their political prospects to Mr. Trump so tightly that it might be a better bet to attend the convention and hope to consolidate Republican base voters than to skip it and risk the president’s wrath.
How does Trump spin a record that many Americans have soured on?
Do not expect a sober analysis of economic data.
For months, Mr. Trump has promised that gas prices will drop as soon as the war he started with Iran ends.
“Three Dollars a gallon, but ultimately, below Two Dollars a gallon,” he wrote on his social media site on Monday. “It will all happen quickly, and Iran will never have a Nuclear Weapon.”
He has also said that his tariffs, which have led to surges in prices for many goods, would increase the country’s prosperity.
Expect Mr. Trump to do what he often does: sell himself and attack Democrats as extreme and too dangerous to run the country. He and his allies have begun trying to paint the entire Democratic Party as in thrall to democratic socialists and a pro-transgender agenda.
Will this be a kickoff to a JD Vance presidential campaign?
Mr. Vance is scheduled to speak on Thursday night in remarks that are likely to have his largest audience and most intense scrutiny since the 2024 presidential campaign.
Neither the vice president nor any other prominent Republican has announced a 2028 presidential campaign. But at least for the moment, Mr. Vance is widely viewed as the party’s front-runner and the most likely heir to Mr. Trump’s political base.
If Mr. Vance does run for president, he will have opportunities to create some space between himself and Mr. Trump, but this convention is probably not the venue to start such a project.
Instead, the speech is Mr. Vance’s chance to show Republicans — especially Mr. Trump — that he can deliver in a big moment.
Will other Republicans celebrate Trump or focus on themselves?
A normal quadrennial party convention is a four-day advertisement for the presidential nominee. Other speakers (with some notable exceptions) typically use their remarks to make the case for why their party should be in charge of the White House.
But Mr. Trump is not on the ballot this year. And with the convention’s focus on promoting him and his political standing, there is a risk for his party that the goal of electing Republicans becomes a bit of a side project.
Candidates who speak at the convention will have to make a choice on how much to extol the president’s record versus seeking out political space for themselves. And really, how many people are tuning in to watch Representative Mike Lawler of New York talk about his record in the Hudson Valley?
That is likely to leave Mr. Lawler and other Republican convention speakers who are in tight races in a bit of a pickle.
How they approach this challenge will be a key story line of the two-day confab.
Which Democrats will become the focus of speakers’ barbs?
This may wind up being a long list.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance have never stopped attacking former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., even though he is long gone from the White House.
Expect to hear a lot about two categories of Democrats: democratic socialists and those who would defend the rights of transgender Americans. Mr. Trump has already seized on both lines of attack.
At the convention in Texas, where Islamophobia has become a staple of mainstream Republican politics, one target for G.O.P. speakers may be Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, who is Muslim. And Texas Republicans have already tried to paint James Talarico, the state’s Democratic nominee for Senate, as too far to the left on gender issues.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a leader of the party’s left wing, has long been a right-wing boogeywoman, and her name may well come up.
Several House Democrats are actually going to Dallas in an attempt to drum up some attention for themselves. Representatives Robert Garcia of California, Jason Crow of Colorado, Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania and Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California are planning to hold a news conference in Dallas on Thursday to counter the G.O.P. messaging. Time will tell if the Republicans inside the arena pay them any mind.
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