(upbeat music)
- Hey everybody, Mark Haliford with next up. Thank you for being here all next to us. As we've cleared the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, I want to visit with you for a little bit as we say in Dallas. To talk to you about my takeaways from what happened
and what it means for me going forward for the midterms.
You never know sitting in a city,
not in the convention city watching it, not talking to voters around the country. It's not a guess work, but I'm a pretty experienced at this guess work. So I'll tell you what I think,
first of all, one of the big takeaways fundraising. As I reported over the convention time in Texas, not a coincidence, Elon Musk is going in big in the race, including helping tax and other candidates in Texas.
And there were a lot of private meetings in Dallas between donors, their representatives and Republican officials to get those wallets open.
“And I believe the Musk contributions that he's placed”
are gonna open up others. And that's a big factor. Republicans are counting on a huge financial advantage spent on mostly negative ads and field organizing to make it different.
So that's a big thing in Dallas that you didn't really see on the TV screen. Second is the president's messaging. They're not running away for making this campaign about Donald Trump.
And in fact, from one of the signature moments of the whole two-day event was when Donald Trump asked everybody in the hall and presumably watch their hands and take an oath to their president. - Please raise your right hand.
I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States. That loves us so much, he can't even breathe. That I will go out with my family, my friends. I'll do it anyway, I don't care if I'm registered
and not I'm gonna try and cheat like hell like they do.
They never, there's never been bigger cheaters and I'm gonna go
out and I'm gonna get my friends, my family. And we are going to vote on November 3rd or we are going to vote before that. - You know, it might seem a little hokey, but George Shabby Bush always said to folks,
he learned after he lost his first election when he ran for the house and he asked a guy if he'd voted for him and the guy said no and he said, well, not he said, you never asked me to. And so Bush, I'll say you always would ask for the vote.
He'd always say at the end of campaigns when he's running for president and governor, he'd say, I'm asking you for the vote. Trump basically asked everybody, please go vote. If you like me, please go vote for other Republicans.
I don't know how effective that will be, but it takes head on this issue, which is the president's unpopular with a lot of Americans, but for Republicans to do well,
they need those who like him who don't always vote
when he's not literally on the ballot to follow his admonition and turn down to vote. Third thing that thinks super interesting and important is the JD Vance. Marco Rubio came down any expectation.
He might run for president during this week. Vance met with a lot of the donors and others can convention attendees in Dallas. And he gave a speech on Thursday night. That was extremely well received.
And the chanting in the hall about how he'll be the next president, chanting 48, because if he wins he'd be the 48th president. And just kind of the symbolic almost passing of the torch between Trump and Vance was palpable,
according to many of the folks who were in Dallas.
“And I think if Vance wants the nomination,”
I think the events of this week makes that even more likely than it was before and I thought it was pretty likely before. Four of the things that I think happened in Dallas is Republicans demonstrated. The same thing, the reason they wanted to do a convention,
the reason you have these conventions. You want to get a sense of unity of momentum of keeping the party really united behind a message. And while people talked about it being only for the base, not all those messages were for the base.
And I think the best example of that was Bobby Kennedy. His speech, he's super popular with MAGA. He was extremely well received. Many people are touting this speech he gave as one of the best speeches not just of the convention,
but of the recent memory. And a lot of what he talked about appeals to independence, disaffected Republicans, maybe some people who voted for Donald Trump and aren't that engaged in the party.
And so that sense of being organized, being unified, having star presenters, like Scott Bessett, like Bobby Kennedy, like the president, the vice president. That's super important.
“And I think net net probably made the convention worth doing”
even though some people were and still are skeptical. And then lastly, a reminder of what a show in Trump is. People talk about well, they keep doing these kind of conventions. Trump is the one, the greatest television producer ever to be elected president.
He's the one who wanted to do this convention. He's the one to make sure along with help,
Really the guiding force between producing it.
And that's an advantage to be able to produce stuff like that.
“We'll see if the next Republican convention in 2028”
is as well produced, maybe the higher Trump to be the producer. All of this adds up to Republicans now feeling more energized, big contribution from Elon Musk for Texas. Republicans in the hall, very united, enthusiastic,
a sense of momentum. And although a lot of polling suggests, my reporting suggests Democrats are well positioned.
The coming out of Texas with a message with more money
and with a sense of unity gives Republicans a fighting chance on the morning meeting. I'm a more democratic strategist, contributed to weight. He said something I've heard in the last couple of days from Democrats concerned that the polls may be masking
what could be a much more competitive election than summer anticipating. Here's time for more from the morning meeting. And the Democrats are still so underwater writ large
“that I think what's happened over the course”
of this primary season, the DSA has taken so much oxygen and energy out of the conversation that it's given Republicans a way to really go after Democrats and socialism, et cetera, et cetera. And so I'm nervous at some of that message
it's going to seed a little bit more than we're than we're anticipating one. And then too, I think Democrats are so hellbent on writing the way of history that they're not necessarily putting in the work in these districts, one by one,
counting these numbers and getting these folk to the ballot. So I don't know.
“I mean, I still think that they will probably win,”
but I'm looking at four or five seed majority right now. I'm not looking at a 25 seed majority. They're just no way. That sense of concern is something I'm hearing from Democrats.
They're worried that the polling data is not necessarily going to reflect the outcome that in a lot of these races, Democrats might be ahead in the polling, but they're not at 50% and Republicans are bad to come down with a massive wave of negative ads.
We're starting to see it already since the convention ended. These ads are going to be well-made. They're going to be well-funded. And they're going to hit a lot of Democratic candidates like Troy Jackson, for instance, in Maine,
like Dr. Abdul Al-Siyad, in Michigan,
who are not experienced candidate who have never played at the level
where everywhere they go, people are talking about negative ads raining down on them, some of them really personal. So we'll see, but I would say you never know for sure, but Dallas was a success by the metrics the Republicans who put it together, including the president.
Set out. More next up next week, we'll see you on Tuesday with the brand new episode of Hope Everybody has a great weekend. I'm Mark Calperon and we'll see you Tuesday for more next up. (upbeat music)
