Updated September 10, 2026 at 11:50 PM EDT
Vice President Vance had a request for people who might disagree with the Republican Party on an issue or policy: vote for us anyway.
"Don't give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there," Vance said in his remarks at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. "Recognize the achievements of the last 18 months. We have done a lot; my friends and we can do a lot more if we fight together."
His plea echoes President Trump's request for Republicans to vote in November as if he were on the ballot.
"Please pretend that I'm running," Trump said. "If we don't have the majorities, so much can be lost."
Vance and Trump both spoke Thursday night to close out the first-ever midterm convention for the Republican Party.
Vance repeated several of the themes heard from speakers over the last two days, describing Democrats as extreme.
The speech was interrupted by a protester carrying what Vance described as a Mexican flag. "If you love Mexico so much, get your a** over there. I'll buy you the plane ticket," said Vance after the protester was escorted out.
The vice president did not mention the $5,000 payments the president proposed on the first day of the convention. But as Trump took to the stage after Vance, he was quick to remind the room of his pledge: to send every American adult citizen a $5,000 cash dividend. But only if his party maintains control of the House and the Senate in November's midterms.
"If the Republicans win, you win with us," Trump said to applause on Wednesday. "And it will be called the 'Trump dividend'. Congratulations. Now all we have to do is win."
That's a big "if." Republicans are facing significant political headwinds.
"We might not win," Trump admitted.
Quick math puts the bill for this proposed "dividend" at more than $1 trillion. Plus, it's illegal to pay or be paid to influence voting.
"I kind of think they should take it and put it into the debt," said Meredith Smith, a convention attendee from Austin, Texas. "A lot of people are going to like [the payment]. But it also smacks of the other side."
Smith said she has mixed feelings.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida also denounced the president's promise of $5,000 to each adult American. At a press conference in Miami on Thursday, DeSantis said this amount of money would only cause more debt and inflation.
House Democrats in Dallas Thursday to counter program the convention quickly attacked the announcement.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., called the president a "known liar."
"The dividend is not happening," Garcia added. "[Trump] promised a dividend on tariffs. That didn't happen. He promised a dividend on DOGE. That didn't happen. He promised some strange, new dividend from Air Force One, what six months ago? That never happened."
"There's no one in the country that thinks somehow this new dividend is actually going to happen," he said.
Much of the messaging from convention speakers Thursday echoed the idea of the Republican Party being on the side of common sense, and positioning Democrats as too extreme.
"Republicans stand for common sense," said House Speaker Mike Johnson. "The Democrat party has been taken over by crazy, far-left radicals."
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was one of a handful of Republicans who used their speech to talk about being former Democrats.
He noted the "irony" of a Kennedy at a Republican convention and said his father and uncle would not recognize the Democratic Party today.
"The party of Me Too. Remember that we were all supposed to listen to women and believe women?" Kennedy Jr. said. "They cruelly silenced the voices of tens of thousands of mothers who believed that their children had suffered vaccine injuries."
Some messaging focused on the rise of left-aligned candidates, but Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas took it further and may have been one of the first speakers at the convention to conflate communism and Islamism.
"Communists and Islamists coming together and sweeping over the Democrat Party," said Cruz. "They are united because they share the same enemies."
Cruz said those enemies include Christians, Jews, capitalism, the Constitution and America.
"Shariah law has no place in America," said Cruz to massive applause in Dallas. "Shariah law is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution, and we need to stand together and stop it now."
Throughout the evening there was a recurrent mention of Hasan Piker, a left-wing political commentator who has campaigned with Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
"Together they attack America. They excuse extremism," Michigan's Republican Senate nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers said about El-Sayed and Piker. "They treat our country like it's the villain."
As the event concluded on Thursday night, balloons slowly dropped from the sky: red, white, blue and gold. Trump stood on the stage basking in the moment. By the time Republicans hold their next convention in 2028, Trump will no longer be the center of the party's attention. There will be a new nominee and de facto party leader charting their own course for the party.
NPR's Stephen Fowler contributed reporting.
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