Can the 'best showman in politics' deliver again? GOP bets on Trump at historic midterm convention

DALLAS — The stakes couldn’t be much higher for President Donald Trump and Republicans.

With less than two months until the midterm elections — and early voting just weeks away — Trump and the GOP descend on Texas starting Wednesday for the party’s first-ever midterm convention, as Republicans fight to keep control of Congress.

The GOP’s playbook for the convention, which comes as Republicans face energized Democrats and political headwinds as they defend their slim House and Senate majorities, is to energize the party’s base and boost turnout in key races that will determine control of Congress.

“We are putting the president on the ballot,” Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Joe Gruters emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the gathering. “That’s exactly what we’re doing with this midterm convention.”

Gruters said speakers at the convention will ask Americans, “Do you want common sense and mainstream, or do you want the extreme left and these radicals that have been elected who fundamentally want to change our country.”

“They want to fundamentally change the way you live at home,” Gruters claimed as he referred to the Democrats.

The other part of the convention gameplan is to showcase Trump’s second-term achievements.

“He delivered for the American worker more so than anybody has over the last five decades,” Gruters claimed. “Things like the Working Family Tax Cuts, the fair trade policies, the $19 trillion in investments that you’re not going to feel right now today, but you will over time. Him constantly going to bat for the American worker, Trump RX accounts… This president understands what it takes and has empathy for what people are going through.”

Also boosting the GOP: Money.

In the midterm battle, the RNC comes into the convention with a major campaign cash advantage over the DNC.

“We’ve been raising a lot of money. We’ve been saving that money,” Gruters emphasized. “Now over the next 60 days you’re going to see us spend that money to make sure we could turn out our voters, to make sure people know exactly where our candidates stand and where the opposition stands.”