GOP Economic Alarm at Dallas Midterm Convention

Republican lawmakers, candidates and party officials gathered in Dallas for their midterm convention and privately expressed alarm that PresidentDonald Trump’s recent policy moves are undermining the party’s cost-of-living message ahead of the November election. In closed-door meetings, senior senators and vulnerable Senate and House candidates discussed how a deepening trade dispute with Canada, soaring oil prices tied to new U.S. strikes against Iran, and a controversial beef-import decision are creating “spiraling economic indicators” that could jeopardize GOP prospects in battleground states.

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• Canada trade war – The administration’s escalation of tariffs on Canadian goods threatens auto and farm sectors in the Midwest, a traditional Republican stronghold.

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• Iran conflict – New military strikes against Iran have pushed crude oil to roughly $100 per barrel, a price spike that Republican strategists say is “cutting across the map.”

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• Beef imports – A policy shift to import additional foreign beef has angered ranchers and farmers from Texas to Iowa, adding to the perception of economic strain.

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• Oil is trading at about $100 per barrel following the Iran strikes.

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• Merchandise sold at the convention included MAGA hats priced at $47 (discounted from $55 online) and bottled water at $8 a bottle.

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• An August POLITICO poll shows 34 % of Americans hold PresidentDonald Trump fully responsible for the current state of the U.S. economy, compared with 17 % who assign the same blame to former PresidentJoe Biden.

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• GOP leaders cite “higher gas prices” as a direct result of the president’s effort to “keep us safe” amid the Iran conflict.

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She highlighted the administration’s tax cuts, prescription-drug price reductions, expansion of the child tax credit, wage growth and reshoring of manufacturing as evidence of economic stewardship.

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Senator Rick Scott(R-Fla.) acknowledged that the war with Iran has pushed gasoline prices higher, describing the increase as a “short-term problem” that the president intends to resolve by “destroying the regime.”

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• “PresidentTrumphas spent every day in office working to undo their mess and lower costs for working families by signing the largest middle class tax cuts in history, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, permanently expanding the child tax credit, fueling wage growth, and reshoring American manufacturing to create more high paying jobs,” — Olivia Wales

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Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to address a breakfast with delegations from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin on Thursday, where GOP leaders hope he will outline a strategy to mitigate the party’s economic woes. The convention’s keynote address by PresidentDonald Trump is also slated for later in the week, with Republicans awaiting a “coherent, policy-oriented” speech that they can amplify on social media. Campaign funds from the No Going Back PAC Inc.

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