Texas Ground Zero for 2026 Midterms
Based on Dallas Rally Speaker Roster
Texas General Election Polls
General Election Rankings
Capitol Inside
September 6, 2026
The lineup of speakers for President Donald Trump's rally this week in Dallas features 10 elected officials from Texas including U.S. Senate contender Ken Paxton, Governor Greg Abbott and four congressional candidates in critical swing races on a new map drawn to yield five new seats for the GOP.
The Republican National Committee unveiled the speaker's list for the event on Saturday in a development that made it appear that the GOP sees the Lone Star State as the ultimate battleground in 2026. Texas landed five times more spots in the lineup for the party's first-ever midterm convention than any other state except Pennsylvania, which has three.
Two of the Texans who will speak at the rally that begins for a two-day run on Wednesday are not on the ballot this year - U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. One of the Texas Republicans who were chosen for the speaker roster in Dallas - U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill of Flower Mound - is running for a new term in a race that has shown no signs of being competitive.
But seven Texans who landed speaking parts at the Trump pep rally do face serious competition from Democrats including Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Abbott and Paxton as the current state attorney general who's the nominee for the U.S. Senate here this year in a fight with Democrat James Talarico.
The elected Texas officials in the speaker lineup for Dallas all will be gambling that their appearances at a rally where they'll be wrapping themselves in a historically unpopular president don't set campaigns back more than the benefits they hope to accrue for their association with Trump.
But the so-called midterm convention could be especially risky for a quartet of South Texas congressional candidates in swing races in districts where the eventual winners will need a significant number of independents and voters from the opposing party to prevail.
The RNC midterm rally lineup includes a pair of siblings - U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz of Weslaco in a race for re-election in Congressional District 15 and Carlos De La Cruz of San Antonio in a quest for the Congressional District 35 seat that Democrats control now in an open race. De La Cruz the incumbent is facing a fierce challenge from Democrat Bobby Pulido while her brother does battle with Democratic foe Johnny Garcia in a neighboring district.
Two Republicans from border areas - Eric Flores of Edinburg and Tano Tijerina of Laredo - were chosen for appearances at the RNC event as challengers who are attempting to unseat Democratic U.S. Reps. Vicente Gonzalez of Brownsville and Henry Cuellar of Laredo in Congressional District 34 and Congressional District 28 respectively.
The Republicans in Austin redrew CD 28, CD 34 and CD 35 for the GOP to convert this year at the polls on a map Trump ordered them to conceive with five new seats for the GOP in Texas. Two other target districts on the Trump map were transformed into seats that Republicans are prohibitive favorites to flip this fall. But Cuellar is a substantial favorite to keep the CD 28 seat while Gonzalez appears to have the inside track against Flores in a race that has the potential to be close at the finish line.
The Republicans here thought the flipping of CD 35 would be a foregone conclusion for the redistricting plan they approved in special session last summer. They did not think De La Cruz the second-term representative would be in trouble in a district that's anchored on the border in the Rio Grande Valley and stretches up through a largely rural swath of southeast Texas.
Another district on the border - Congressional District 23 - could be in play this fall as well as a seat that the most recent incumbent Tony Gonzales gave up in the midst of a scandal involving an affair with a married staffer who died after lighting herself on fire. Gonzales' departure in disgrace cleared the path for Brandon Herrera to be the nominee in CD 23. But Herrera is a gun rights promoter with a propensity for rhetoric that's right-wing and ballistic - and that could have been why he was missing from the RNC rally speaker list as the nominee in a district that could be in the Democrats' reach in the event of a blue wave that many are predicting.
Gill, who also made the speaker's lineup for Dallas, is a rising GOP star who some Republicans envision to be a future governor or U.S. senator here. Johnson is a former Democratic state representative who switched to the GOP after a promotion to the mayoral post. He presumably was added to the speaker list by virtue of his leadership position for the host city. But Johnson is Black - and Republicans are hoping to get some support from Black voters who've not been impressed with Talarico in the Senate race at the top of the ticket. So the mayor's slot in the Dallas rally roster could be than token and ceremonial.
Trump is the only rally participant who's set to speak on both nights of the midterm event. The president will deliver the main keynote speech on Wednesday night before he makes the closing remarks as a grand finale on Thursday. Vice-President JD Vance is slated for the main keynote on the rally's second and final night. Several cabinet members including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are scheduled to appear on the stage at the rally as well. Donald Trump Jr. is listed among the keynote speakers as well.
The speaker's list for Dallas includes only two spots for Republicans in other swing states such as Georgia, Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina along with two from the Trump original home base of New York and two from Florida where Mar-a-Lago is located.
RNC Midterm Convention Speakers
Keynotes
President Trump, Night One Keynote Address and Night Two Closing Remarks
Vice President Vance, Night Two Keynote Address
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
Attorney General Todd Blanche
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz
HUD Secretary Scott Turner
Former press secretary Karoline Leavitt
Donald Trump Jr.
Republican Leadership
Speaker Mike Johnson
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso
Senator Tim Scott, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer
House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain
NRCC Chair Richard Hudson
Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters
Elected Officials
Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas)
Sen. Jon Husted (Ohio)
Sen. Dave McCormick (Pa.)
Gov. Greg Abbott (Texas)
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick
Texas Attorney General and Senate candidate Ken Paxton
Rep. Rob Bresnahan (Pa.)
Georgia Senate candidate Rep. Mike Collins
Rep. Monica De La Cruz (Texas)
Florida governor candidate Rep. Byron Donalds
Rep. Brandon Gill (Texas)
Rep. Brian Jack (Ga.)
Rep. Mike Lawler (N.Y.)
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.)
Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (Pa.)
Rep. Jason Smith (Mo.)
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (Wis.)
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson
Candidates
Captain Mike Bouchard Jr., Candidate for U.S. House (MI-10)
Laurie Buckhout, Candidate for U.S. House (NC-01)
Greg Cunningham, Candidate for U.S. House (NM-02)
Jay Feely, Candidate for U.S. House (AZ-01)
Eric Flores, Candidate for U.S. House (TX-34)
Carlos De La Cruz, Candidate for U.S. House (TX-35)
Mike LiPetri, Candidate for U.S. House (NY-03)
Derek Merrin, Candidate for U.S. House (OH-09)
Marty O'Donnell, Candidate for U.S. House (NV-03)
Mike Rogers, Candidate for U.S. Senate (MI)
Tano Tijerina, Candidate for U.S. House (TX-28)
Michael Whatley, Candidate for U.S. Senate (NC)
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