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Iran War Shadows Trump at Dallas Republican Convention

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Republicans gather in Dallas for their midterm convention as the Iran war and $100 oil test Trump's grip ahead of November's House and Senate fights.

Republicans opened their midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, on September 9, betting that President Donald Trump can still drive turnout even as his war on Iran and its effect on household costs weigh on voters. The event places Trump at the heart of the party's closing push before November, when Republicans fight to keep their majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Trump was set to headline the gathering with a keynote speech on Wednesday. Hours before he took the stage, Brent Crude, the international oil benchmark, climbed past $100 a barrel for the first time since July - a fresh signal that the conflict he began alongside Israel on February 28 continues to ripple through global markets and, with it, prices at home.

Supporters who spoke at the convention described an event built around the president himself. Attendees calling themselves the "Front Row Joes" cheered through the opening day. Yet the enthusiasm sat alongside unease about the war and its consequences for affordability, an issue many voters rank at the top of their concerns.

Carter Eisinger, a 27-year-old electrician who made the trip from Fargo, North Dakota, embraced the atmosphere while wrestling with the policy. He called the gathering a "Trump-a-palooza" and said he meant it as praise. "I think some people say that in a derogatory way, but I think it's very much a complimentary phrase," he said. "The reality of it is we are in a Trump Republican Party."

Even so, Eisinger could not square the Iran campaign with the "America First" message that drew him to the movement. "In my opinion, I don't really see the connection of how a war in Iran helps us here in the country," he said. He added that he would accept higher fuel costs if the case for fighting were clear. "If the Iran war is justified, I'm willing to pay the gas prices, but I haven't seen that justification."

He voiced the same hesitation about Washington's tight bond with Israel. "At the end of the day, I'm going to come right back to whatever is best for families, young people, anyone in America," he said. "If it's helping Israel in a way that helps us, then great... but it needs to help us first."

Others judged the war more forgivingly while still calling it a mistake. Bijay Dixit, a 59-year-old photographer from Houston, praised Trump's handling of immigration and said he trusted Republicans to manage the economy in the years ahead. On Iran, though, he used the word "miscalculation." He said he accepted the administration's argument that the strike answered decades of Iranian conduct stretching back to the 1979 Islamic revolution, 47 years earlier.

"Iran needed to be stopped at some point," Dixit said. His criticism, he explained, was about execution rather than intent: "When I say miscalculation, what I mean is underestimation of the capacity of the IRGC." He was referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

For some, the convention worked as a morale exercise regardless of the debates over foreign policy. Helen Vennett, a 65-year-old small business owner from Maryland who chairs her county's Republican Party, compared the scene to a high-school pep rally. "All of us need to have cheerleaders in our life," she said. "It just gets you fired" up.

The mix of loyalty and doubt captured the party's challenge as the campaign enters its final weeks. Trump remains the figure Republicans are counting on to mobilise their base, but the war he launched - and the rising costs tied to it - has left even committed supporters searching for a rationale they can carry to the ballot box in November.

Republican midterm convention, Trump Iran war, Dallas convention 2026, Brent crude oil prices, US midterm elections, IRGC, America First, November elections

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