DALLAS â President Donald Trump is getting a much warmer reception from his fellow Republicans during this election cycle than his predecessor did from Democrats this time two years ago.
Conventional political wisdom dictates that the party in power will suffer losses in Congress during a midterm election year. Americans who oppose the president’s party are typically more motivated to vote than people who support their agenda.
But the GOP is banking on the opposite effect. The first-ever GOP midterm convention featured back-to-back keynote addresses from the commander-in-chief, as well as speeches from his Cabinet officials, allies and members of Congress.
“I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot,” Trump told his audience on Wednesday. Republican incumbents and candidates running in battleground districts this November also took the stage, and all speakers projected confidence despite Trump’s own low approval numbers.
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“We ran together in 2024 on a ticket with President Trump, [Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa.] and myself â voters elected all of us to deliver real change and results, and we’ve actually been able to do that with securing the border and delivering historic tax relief,” Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., told Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the convention.
“Now what we’re seeing is in a midterm, we are actually going to defy the historic trends. Why is that? Because the Democrats are so far left they are totally out of touch.”
Republicans believe their warnings of Democrats’ socialist insurgency will help them keep their majorities in the House and Senate this year, along with touting Trump’s signature tax cuts in the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.
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Mackenzie is one of Democrats’ top targets in the election cycle, along with Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., in the suburbs outside New York City.
“He’s the President of the United States, and whether it was Joe Biden or Donald Trump, I’ve always shown up,” Lawler told Fox News Digital. “You have to be able to engage with the president, and, you know, frankly, this is where I think the Democrats have made a very big mistake. They could get a lot more in terms of what it is that they want if they would actually engage constructively.”
Lawler, Mackenzie and Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., are the three vulnerable incumbents who took the stage during the convention last week.
