What RNC Chair Joe Gruters and Republican candidates told us at the first-ever RNC midterm convention in Dallas

DALLAS —

Even before the first-ever Republican National Convention (RNC) ended, Joe Gruters — the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) Chairman — told the Washington Reporter in an interview that it was both a success and that his party should look to repeat it in future cycles. 

“We’ve had millions of people viewing from around the country, a million viewers that watched different clips on social media today,” Gruters said. “At the end of the day, I do think it’s worth it. These guys did an amazing job. I think we’re going to do something that has not been done often: win these midterms as the incumbent party, but it’s going to be because of everything we’ve done, because we have the right candidates, because we have the resources, because we have the messaging.”

DALLAS —

Joe Mitchell doesn’t just want to drain the swamp if he gets elected to Congress in November; he wants to root out corruption across the American government, and he has a roadmap to get it done.

“We’re not taking any corporate PAC money,” Mitchell told the Washington Reporter in an interview. “That means no money from BlackRock, no money from Pfizer, no money from places like Goldman Sachs or Amazon.” But that is only one plank in his anti-corruption plank — and it is one that separates him from a lot of his fellow Republican candidates.

DALLAS —

In Mike Bouchard’s campaign for Congress in Michigan’s open 10th District, he released an ad featuring him jumping out of a plane, arguing that he is fit to lead Michiganders. The former Army paratrooper spoke with the Washington Reporter at the first-ever midterm Republican National Convention in Dallas about the type of servant leadership he hopes to bring to Washington, D.C.

Bouchard came to Texas, he said, because it was “an awesome opportunity to be able to be with senior leaders, the president, and leaders in Congress, and for me to be a part of that discussion, because if you don’t come here, you don’t have a say in that discussion. I’m here so I can bring things back to my district. I believe if you want to be a leader, step up and move, so I’m going to sit here today and have some of those discussions.”

DALLAS —

Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, some Democrats are optimistic that President Donald Trump’s historic gains with Latino voters in 2024 were an anomaly. But Eric Flores, who is running for Congress in South Texas, believes they are here to stay.

In an interview with the Washington Reporter at the first-ever Republican National Committee (RNC) midterm convention, Flores said that the idea that Latinos are flocking to Democrats is “not the truth at all.”

DALLAS —

For years, T.W. Shannon served in the Oklahoma state legislature, rising to ultimately be the Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives; from his vantage points in Oklahoma City, he had a front row seat to “the Oklahoma standard and the Oklahoma story.”

At the first-ever midterm Republican National Convention (RNC), Shannon shocked the nation, explaining what those successes in Oklahoma looked like, and how the rest of America can learn from them. In Oklahoma, he explained, “we’re creating jobs, [] we’re lowering taxes, [and] we’re growing prosperity and wealth in the state… I’m always excited to take that message out; [] I specifically was asked to talk about what we’re doing in terms of school choice and how that’s making a difference in the lives of so many children.”

DALLAS —

Two generations ago, Michael Alfonso’s grandparents came to America from Cuba — now, Alfonso is running for Congress in a safely Republican district to succeed Rep. Tom Tiffany (R., Wis.). For Alfonso, the horrors of socialism, and of the communism that it ushers in, are personal.

“When I hear about socialism, my eyes roll,” Alfonso told the Washington Reporter in an interview at the first-ever midterm Republican National Convention (RNC). “That’s the one-year stage before full-blown communism. That’s what we’re preaching, and in places like New York City, I can believe that it’s happening. Look, I’m a Midwesterner; I’m not shocked.”

DALLAS —

For years, Greg Cunningham worked behind-the-scenes in law enforcement, embedding with precursors of Antifa and crafting sting operations that led to high-profile arrests in New Mexico.

Now, Cunningham is running for Congress against the type of person he told the Washington Reporter in an interview he would previously have been tasked with removing from protests before they became riots.

DALLAS —

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is the odds-on favorite to represent the Mount Rushmore State in Congress next year, and he trekked down to Dallas for the first-ever Republican National Convention (RNC) to “com[e] together to unite” with Republicans, he told the Washington Reporter in his latest interview.

“President [Donald] Trump’s message was strong,” Jackley said, following Trump’s stemwinder of a speech. “He does what he does best. He makes us proud to be Americans. I have an opportunity to talk to other potentially future congressmen about issues that are important to my state in South Dakota and that are important to our country.”

DALLAS —

Among the constellation of outside conservative groups present at the first-ever midterm Republican National Convention was Heritage Action, whose spokesman Doug Blair spoke with the Washington Reporter about Heritage Action’s priorities for the rest of this Congress, as well as how the organization is planning for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term, regardless of whether Republicans win in November.

The biggest priority for Heritage Action, which is the lobbying arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, is “AI chips, and preventing the Chinese Communist Party from obtaining access to American semiconductor and AI technology,” Blair told the Reporter. “It is absolutely essential that the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act, includes provisions that prevent American tech companies from selling these to China.”

RNC TAKEOVER: The Daily Wire took over the perimeter of the Republican National Convention, hosting a BaRNC, from which it live-streamed much of its programming. The bar was a must-visit for attendees. Among those who joined the Wire’s team there were Cassie Scher, Brent Scher, Mark Fraenkel, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary Brooke Rollins, Scott Jennings, Ben Smith, Johanna Pershing, Jessica Reed Kraus, Sarah Frances Morris, Albert Mack, Doug Blair, Ben Domenech, Clay Travis, Isabel Brown, Ben Shapiro, Xaviaer DuRousseau, Nick Sortor, Matt Whitlock, Kara Vogt, Jesús Rodríguez, Aidan Mclaughlin, Cam Higby, Tim Rice, Alexa Henning, Roma Daravi, Matthew…

There is little doubt that California’s partisan Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta is colluding with his anti-Semitic Hollywood friends, like Mark Ruffalo and Jane Fonda, and his fellow radical Democratic attorneys general to push his political lawsuit to try to stop the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. 

But that’s not all, folks. It turns out that Bonta’s office also has connections to a political consulting firm actively working to stop the merger from going through.  

It turns out that, for the opponents of this merger, it’s all in the family — in some cases quite literally. As first reported by Politico, Bonta’s communications director is married to a principal at Dewey Square, which has been doing PR work for the “Block the Merger” organization and sending out press releases on their behalf since at least April. This is the same group that is reportedly funded by leftist radical billionaires like George Soros, Pierre Omidyar and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ally Neville Singham; all of these Democratic megadonors appear to be actively working behind the scenes to try to manipulate the outcome of the merger.