Speakers who preceded him attacked their Democratic opponents as "radicals."
President Donald Trump promised the crowd at the GOP's first-ever midterm convention Wednesday that if Republicans hold on to the House and Senate he'll issue a $5,000 "dividend" to every adult American.
Speakers who preceded the president took aim at their Democratic midterm opponents, characterizing them as "radicals" and "dangerous."
Trump and Republicans from across the country are in Dallas for two nights to support the slate of candidates running this year and to tout the administration's agenda going into November in their first-ever midterm convention.
As the president began his speech, there were several rows of empty seats in some pockets in the American Airlines Center.
Trump often brags about crowd size and loves to see a packed arena.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott
Trump told the crowd at American Airlines Center that Republicans need to vote like he's on the ballot in November.
"This has been the most successful two years, financially and every other way in the history of the presidency," Trump said.
"So I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot. I'm on the ballot. I'm on the ballot. Just one more time, because if we lose, you're going to lose your border. You're going to lose your tax cuts. You're going to lose your safety and security. you're going to lose your wealth. Our country is going through hell. You will be going through hell, just like you did just two years ago," he said.
One of the major themes of the convention is Republicans pushing what they call common-sense policies compared to Democrats and Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Rep. Byron Donalds discussed the commonality that Texas and Florida share in building policies based on that.
"Florida and Texas have something absolutely essential in common. Our two states prove every single day that Republican policies built on common sense work for the American people," Donalds said.
Turning his attention to Democrats, Donalds said that they created the affordability crisis and that Americans should not trust them to fix it.
"But let me ask all of you here tonight: Do you let the arsonist become the firefighter? Because make no mistake, the Democrats created the inflation that's crippling families, and we, the Republican Party, we have the resumé and the credentials and the plans and the policies to get our country back on track," Donalds said.
-ABC News' Hannah Demissie
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who leads the Senate GOP campaign arm, gave an animated speech, criticizing a slate of Democratic candidates before concluding that the only way to keep "dangerous, radical, weird" out of the Senate is a "united Republican Party."
"Standing with our President Donald J. Trump," he shouted, raising both hands in the air. "Stand for the President Donald J. Trump. This is a battle for the heart of our nation. I said the heart of our nation."
Scott pulled open his jacket and pounded his chest as he shouted, "The Democrats' extreme candidates won't rip that heart out of our chests. They hate our culture. They hate what it means to be American. Hear me Dallas? Not on our watch. We won't back down. We will not grow weary. Are you with me?"
Scott went on to criticize Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico for believing that God is non-binary, comments that Talarico has walked back, and took a number of stabs at Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, saying that he "panders with terrorists."
-ABC News' Allison Pecorin
