Convention Before The Storm

For Trump and Johnson, the brilliance of the idea isn’t just in the showmanship, but in the timing. By dragging the drama of a presidential convention into the midterm calendar, they aim to fuse every local race into a single, emotional referendum. Candidates who would normally struggle for attention in scattered districts could instead be introduced on the same stage, under the same lights, with the same storyline: part of a sweeping, national mission rather than isolated campaigns.

But the risks are as staggering as the potential rewards. A misstep on that kind of stage could magnify internal rifts, expose weak candidates, or exhaust voters long before Election Day. Democrats would be forced to decide whether to imitate the spectacle or cast it as a dangerous escalation. Whatever the outcome, the message is unmistakable: campaigns are no longer content to live inside the old calendar, and the next fight for power will be waged as much in emotion and imagery as in votes and policies.