DALLAS and BRIGHTON, Colorado — As the Republican Party’s first-ever midterm convention started on Wednesday afternoon at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, there were plenty of fervent supporters of President Donald Trump on hand, and plenty of Trump-themed merch.
Make America Great Again hats priced at $47 — a nod to the 47th president — shirts with the convention logo, cards sporting Trump’s face and more crowded the official souvenir stands for purchase by the faithful.
What was missing from the Trump-inspired scene were most of the people Trump said on Truth Social he wanted there — Republicans in competitive races.
Most of them stayed far, far away, in districts where vibes surrounding the unpopular president are far less positive. The convention presented a stark split screen, with Trump on one side calling for endangered members of Congress to join him amid the adoration and heated rhetoric of the MAGA base, while on the other side imperiled candidates aimed to soothe disenchanted locals.
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One of those was Rep. Gabe Evans, a Colorado Republican who represents one of the state’s most competitive seats. He was about 800 miles northwest of Dallas as the convention launched, walking into a large conference room at the Electrical Independent Contractors of Rocky Mountain. He was attending a listening session with acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling to hear from the association’s board members.
“I might have considered going to it, you know? But at the end of the day, I’m going to be here in my community, listening to my community, taking care of my community,” Evans told The Washington Sun over a coffee at a local coffee shop in Brighton, Colorado.
Trump reiterated his pitch to vulnerable Republicans in his prime-time keynote speech Wednesday night.
“You have so many of those great senators and I said, ‘You know the ones I want here, we have some that are leading by 30 points and they’ve been here for 25 years.’ I said, ‘Don’t come, please don’t come,’” Trump told the crowd. “The ones that we need are … the ones that are very close. They might be winning by a little or losing by a little, or tied.”
Evans and most other candidates facing similar circumstances did not answer the call. Of 70 speakers at the convention, only 18 were Republicans in tough House and Senate races. More than 40 Republican candidates and incumbents are considered to be tight races for seats in both chambers.
North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of the House Republicans’ campaign arm, which worked with the RNC to bring House lawmakers to Dallas, told The Sun that any concerns about the absence of vulnerable Republicans at the convention were just a “media kind of narrative about this, who’s here, who’s not here.”
“I just think it’s D.C. trying to create some kind of narrative that there’s some kind of disunity here. We’re as unified as we’ve ever been, and this convention has been a great unifying focal point for us,” Hudson added.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Speaker Mike Johnson put a different spin on the divergent strategies of party leaders and their more reticent members: It’s just common sense, not evidence of a GOP divide.
“Anybody that wants to come and be a part of that is great. But we’ve also got members in tough races that want to be in their districts campaigning because they’re literally going to win or lose by 1%. So some of them, you know, are in much better position being in their district,” Scalise told reporters.
Similarly, when asked last month while in New York whether he’d encourage members to go to the convention, Johnson said it “depends on the district.”
One House Republican in a competitive race who skipped the Dallas gathering and was granted anonymity to speak candidly, did not seem to have FOMO.
“I’m back in my district this week. Just finished knocking on doors for the night,” the lawmaker told The Sun via text Tuesday night.
When asked if the RNC, which organized the midterm convention, reached out about attending, the House Republican said, “I told them I would be working in the district and they left me alone.”
One person familiar with planning for the convention suggested that, despite what the president said, organizers didn’t actually want more lawmakers around, telling The Sun, “We want to actually have everyday Americans,” adding it’s “so much more powerful” than listening to “30 straight, 70-year-old dudes in a suit go up there and talk about policy.”
The priority for speakers, the person said, was those ordinary Americans first, followed by Cabinet members and, finally, vulnerable Republicans: “There’s only two nights, there’s only so many speaking slots, like, we can’t have everyone.”
Still, in a midterm when history favors the out-of-power party and Democrats are expecting a blue wave driven by Trump’s record-low approval ratings, an unpopular war in Iran, high gas prices and rising grocery costs, Evans was more interested in the everyday Americans back home.
“I’m taking care of my district,” Evans told The Sun.
“We did three site visits yesterday. People brought up new issues to me, and then I act on those issues,” Evans said “Whether it’s writing letters, making calls, doing emails to the administration, talking to other members, I take care of my community and my neighborhood.”
Evans’ decision reflects the very precarious position he’s in. His seat, Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, is ranked a “toss up” by the Cook Political Report, with an even split between Republicans and Democrats.
Former President Joe Biden won the district by 5 percentage points in 2020. In 2024, Trump carried the district by just under 2 points, and his signature tough-on-immigration policies are a drag in the district.
Latino support has dropped significantly — recent polling found 61% of Latino voters there said they disapprove of the president, compared to 48% who disapproved of him in summer 2025.
“I am more conservative, and so I understand, I see both sides, but I’m also a human with empathy, and it’s hard to watch,” said Febe Valdez, the owner of Willow and Fern, about the administration’s “harsh” mass deportation policies. “So I can’t personally, can’t really confidently say, I support violence and aggression when it comes to border control.”
For some, Trump’s deportation tactics go beyond disapproval to hurting their pocketbooks.
Valerie Beltran, who owns Beltran’s Meat Market in Brighton with her husband, Cesar, blames the crackdown on migrants for driving down the couple’s sideline money-transfer business by 70%. Trump lauded the crackdown in his two-hour convention speech, but Beltran said it’s cost her income that covers most of the rent on their 5,600-square-foot building.
“I feel like it’s the fear of sending their kids to school or coming to the Mexican markets to buy their produce or their meat, the shopping that they need to do daily supplies. Just fear of even leaving the house,” Beltran said. “That has contributed to the decline in sales.”
People who don’t go to markets also do not send money home to Mexico, Beltran said. She and her husband are among the many voters Evans has to worry about, though Evans has introduced a bill intended to shield some Latino businesses.
“The first time, I voted for Mr. Trump — both times. And the first time I was so happy. This time I’m not so happy, you know? I regret it this time,” Cesar said.
Those vulnerable Republicans who did attend the convention say there were benefits.
“Any time members of Congress or candidates have a national audience, that’s an opportunity to talk about, especially as an incumbent, to talk about the things you’ve done in office,” Rep. Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania told The Sun.
Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, who took the stage Thursday night alongside the loved ones of individuals killed by undocumented immigrants, said he was “proud to stand with them and proud to fight for them.”
“Nobody has called me and said, ‘How dare you go to the convention?,’” Lawler said over the phone.
But for Evans, who’s in a district with a significant rural population, agriculture experts agreed he’d be better served by staying home.
“I would say anybody that represents a state that is undergoing as many pressures as they are back home in the district with the economic stuff for farms and ranches — if they can be there to support, probably not a terrible idea,” Kreg Vollmer, a state board member of the Colorado Farm Bureau, told The Sun.
“Personally, I would also prefer to stay in Colorado in August and not go to Dallas and die from the heatstroke. But that’s just me,” Vollmer joked.
Oriana González reported from Dallas. Kadia Goba reported from Brighton, Colorado
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