Republican Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas’s 26th District opened the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday with a speech aimed squarely at Democrats on culture, immigration and economic policy, warning voters against what he called “Woke 2.0.”
The two-day gathering marks the RNC’s first midterm convention of its kind, with President Donald Trump scheduled to appear both nights. Republicans are using the Dallas event to lay out their argument to voters ahead of the November elections.
Gill opened with a land acknowledgment that inverted the format often used at progressive gatherings.
“I think it’s only appropriate that we kick this convention off properly with a land acknowledgement. I’d like to acknowledge that we stand here today in the great state of Texas and the United States of America, the ancestral homeland of great American patriots, pioneers, and explorers who put down roots, fought for freedom all over the globe, and bled and died to build the greatest civilization ever known to man.”
He framed the coming election as “the mainstream versus the extreme,” criticizing Democratic rhetoric on the American flag, capitalism, gender and religion before turning to specific candidates.
“Now we have to admit that every party has their crazies. The difference is that the Democrat Party is nominating theirs for Congress.”
Gill named Democratic congressional candidate Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, describing him as “an extremist who sympathized with terrorists” and criticizing his appearance alongside commentator Hasan Piker, who Gill said has claimed America deserved the September 11 attacks.
Gill then turned to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who told an interviewer in August that “Woke 1 was crazy” while distancing herself from some progressive politics of the first Trump era and declining to rule out a 2028 presidential run.
“Well, AOC, you were finally right about one thing: Woke One was crazy, and we’re not going to let you get your hands on Woke Two.”
Gill also targeted the economic record of the Biden administration, saying inflation “hit nine percent” under President Biden. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show the Consumer Price Index rose 9.1 percent over the 12 months ending in June 2022, the largest such increase since November 1981.
The night before his speech, Gill previewed the argument on social media, writing that Democrats “who now want to take up the mantle of affordability were all complicit in the Biden-era economic policies that sent inflation to 9% and open border policies that flooded our nation with millions of low wage migrants,” adding that Democrats would repeat the same policies if given the chance.
He closed the speech by returning to those same themes.
“We will not go back to Democrats’ woke insanity. We will not go back to divisive racialized politics. We will not go back to nine percent Biden inflation, and we absolutely will not go back to open borders.”
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