GOP's First Midterm Convention Opens in Dallas This Week, $25,000 Lawmaker Fee Question Goes Unanswered

Republicans are staging their first-ever midterm nominating convention this week in Dallas, and the man co-chairing the host committee couldn't answer basic questions about how much lawmakers are paying to show up.

Ray Washburne, Sunoco chairman and host committee chair for the convention, sat down with Margaret Brennan on CBS's Face the Nation on Sept. 6. Brennan pressed him on reports that lawmakers are being asked to pay $25,000 to attend, with vulnerable incumbents reportedly exempted. Washburne's answer: he doesn't know.

"The whole attendance and selling the packages is all an RNC thing," Washburne told Brennan. "I'm chairman of the host committee that's putting the convention on, so I'm not sure exactly in all the different packages they have."

Washburne did confirm the scale: 20,000 people from all 50 states and every U.S. territory, with attendees arriving over the weekend of Sept. 5-6 ahead of a week packed with donor events. "Their events stacked every single day," Washburne said, adding that most competitive House and Senate races have someone representing them in Dallas, "except for a couple that couldn't break away."

The Paxton Money

The centerpiece of the convention, according to Brennan's questioning, is former Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, now running for U.S. Senate. President Trump reportedly told allies this past week that Paxton is the candidate to watch in Dallas, even while joking, in Washburne's telling, that "people don't like the way he dresses, looks, or does interviews."

The money is real. Washburne said Trump announced a $10 million contribution to Paxton's campaign on Sept. 5, with more expected. Elon Musk has also pledged what Washburne described as "a substantial amount of money" to the same race. Washburne did not put a number on Musk's contribution.

The Fair Question About Pay-to-Play

Charging $25,000 for a candidate or lawmaker to attend their own party's convention raises questions about fairness, especially with vulnerable incumbents reportedly getting a pass while safer-seat members foot the bill. Reasonable people can see that fee as a donor-access operation dressed up as a nominating convention.

Washburne's defense framed the whole thing as standard political networking: high-profile donors and administration officials in one place, candidates getting facetime with people who write checks, an obvious incentive to show up "even if it's just for a day." That's how conventions and party fundraising have worked for decades, on both sides. Democratic and Republican committees alike charge for VIP packages, credentials, and access tiers at their gatherings. None of that is illegal, and none of it involves taxpayer money.

But Washburne running the host committee and not knowing the fee structure his own convention charges lawmakers is a significant gap. Either he genuinely doesn't know, which raises questions about how the event is actually being managed, or he's declining to answer on Brennan's air, which raises a different question about transparency. Neither is ideal for a party that spent the last several years criticizing Democrats over backroom fundraising deals.

What's Unconfirmed

Brennan's $25,000 figure and the vulnerable-incumbent exemption came from reporting she cited in her question, not from Washburne's own confirmation. He never disputed the number, but he never verified it either. The RNC, which Washburne repeatedly pointed to as the entity actually running the fee packages, has not publicly detailed the pricing structure or which incumbents qualify for a waiver.

That leaves an open question heading into the week: will the RNC release the actual fee schedule, or will reporters have to keep asking the host committee chairman questions he says he can't answer? Paxton's Senate campaign, meanwhile, now has at least $10 million in fresh Trump-directed money plus an unspecified Musk contribution, both disclosed on national television before the convention has even formally opened.