Live From Dallas: Granite State GOP Energized By Trump's Midterm Convention

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

DALLAS, TX — As President Donald Trump urged GOP voters to “pretend I’m on the ballot” and pledged to campaign in battleground states like New Hampshire, Granite State Republicans attending the 2026 GOP Midterm Convention said they felt energized ahead of an uphill battle in November.

“This convention was a brilliant move by the president,” Al Letizio Jr. of Windham told NHJournal. “There’s no downsides to having it and you have a place that’s packed and a room full of so much excitement and electricity in the room that’s no different than a full-fledged convention.”

Trump’s speech, which lasted one hour and 45 minutes, spanned a host of topics meant to energize GOP voters to show up at the polls. New Hampshire’s primary, which occurred the day before the convention, served as yet another reminder to Republicans of the need to boost turnout.

Midterm elections are notoriously tough for the party holding the White House. The one recent exception was the post 9/11 election when President George W. Bush and the GOP gained seats in both chambers. Trump says he can make history and deliver a victory to Republicans in November.

“We have 35 races that are called swings,” Trump said. “I’m going to go to every one of those states for congressmen and senators and we’re going to have rallies like this.”

Trump’s focus on winning the midterms even led him to specifically ask U.S. senators from safe red states to avoid attending, keeping the spotlight on competitive races like New Hampshire’s.

“The ones we need are the ones that you’ve heard, the ones that are very close,” Trump said. “They might be winning by a little, or losing by a little, or tied. We can win every one of those races.”

Trump has endorsed two of New Hampshire’s three GOP nominees: John E. Sununu for U.S. Senate and Anthony DiLorenzo for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District.

Both opted out of the event, while NH-02 Republican nominee Lily Tang Williams is in Dallas for the event.

New Hampshire Republicans are split on Trump’s impact on GOP turnout in the Granite State. Some argue that it could be beneficial, while others believe Republican candidates might have to make tough calls about distancing themselves from the president.

Jennifer LePla of Sandwich believes remaining close to Trump could prove challenging for Sununu, especially in New Hampshire, which has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since Gov. Kelly Ayotte in 2010.

“That’s hard to do in New Hampshire and he does have to run his own race and say what he thinks,” LePla told NHJournal. “And if that’s against the president, I look at it like voting. It’s not a love letter to that candidate. It’s how I want to live, what kind of world I want to live in, what kind of state I want to live in.”

However, Letizio said he believes Trump would be helpful to Republicans on the campaign trail, especially since both Sununu and DiLorenzo were endorsed by Trump in their respective primaries.

“He’s extremely charismatic and at times, polarizing, but the message that he’s delivering of accomplishments are really important messages,” Letizio said. “These candidates stand for many of the principles that embody a large part of the successes of the administration.”

Trump’s pitch to GOP voters included topics ranging from immigration and preventing men from participating in women’s sports to the ongoing Iran war and the economy, which has remained a key issue this cycle.

“This has been the most successful two years financially and every other way in the history of the presidency,” Trump said to supporters during his opening remarks.

Defending his economic record, Trump argued that he has unfairly faced criticism for rising prices since his first term in office while asserting that prices have been coming down during his second term.

“We got eggs down lower than under my predecessor and food prices and almost every other item are rapidly going down,” Trump said. “And by the way, oil will be going down as soon as we win the war with Iran.”

“A little more than a year and a half, 80 days during that period of time, the stock market has set an all-time record,” Trump added. “The typical American’s 401K has increased by almost $50,000 and unemployment claims have reached the lowest level ever recorded.”

Among the other policy issues mentioned by Trump was health care, particularly his administration’s efforts on the “Great Healthcare” plan.

“We will pass the Great Healthcare plan to stop all government payments to big insurance companies, and give the money directly to the people, for you to buy your own healthcare and have money left over,” Trump said.

Trump’s health care plan was especially interesting to Stephanie Olson, a GOP activist from Bristol who said she was concerned about rising premium costs.

“Healthcare is a huge issue for me personally because my husband is retired and on Medicare so I’m buying my own plan,” Olson said. “It’s ridiculous, the coverage is terrible and I’m paying $400 per month with a $10,000 deductible so I don’t even use my insurance basically.”

LePla, however, believed the convention’s success came not from Trump’s hour-and-a-half speech, but rather from its ability to place everyday Americans front and center in highlighting the administration’s successes.

“It’s the everyday American that is showcased here,” LePla told NHJournal. “You’re hearing the stories of not just the policies, but the implementation of them and their real effect.

“You had the grandma living on a limited income or the mom talking about [Trump’s removal of] tax on tips, that’s the story that we should focus on with this convention.”

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.