President Donald Trump’s advisers are looking at holding a GOP convention in Las Vegas in 2026 after he announced that the party will break from the norm of having conventions only in presidential election years.
“The Republicans are going to do a Midterm Convention in order to show the great things we have done since the Presidential Election of 2024,” Trump wrote in a September Truth Social post. “Time and place to be determined. Stay tuned, it will be quite the Event, and very exciting!”
In an August post written while he was still considering a midterm convention, Trump said such a thing has “never been done before” by the Republican Party.
Las Vegas has made the shortlist for the event’s location, people involved in the discussions told the Wall Street Journal this week. Some of the president’s advisers are also reportedly weighing Texas, Washington, DC, and other locations before a final decision is made.
The Democrat Party held midterm conventions in the 1970s and ’80s, but the idea of doing so “fell out of favor as a waste of time and money” in recent decades, the outlet reported.
Trump made the August post just a day after Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin brought up the prospect of having their own midterm convention during a meeting with party leaders in Minneapolis. Axios reported that Martin had been “quietly” pushing the idea.
Sources told WSJ that the Republican convention is set to take place close to the beginning of early voting in the 2026 elections, which will decide all 435 U.S. House seats, 35 of the 100 U.S. Senate seats, 36 gubernatorial seats, and numerous state and local races.
The president reportedly wants to create an entertaining atmosphere similar to the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which included a performance from Kid Rock and a fiery speech from the late Hulk Hogan, who died this July.
“We’re excited about the possibility of a midterm convention and looking forward to seeing the plans develop,” Republican National Committee (RNC) spokeswoman Kiersten Pels told the outlet, adding that the convention will “showcase the party’s unity, vision, and commitment to expanding our majorities in 2026.”
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
