Midterm Convention Preview from the Platinum Level: Jim Pfaff from the RNC Midterm Convention Venue | Sep 7, 2026
Published: September 7, 2026
Network: TCC Live — RNC Midterm Convention coverage, Dallas
Analysis: Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff
Two days before the Republican National Committee’s first midterm convention opened, Jim Pfaff switched on a camera at The Conservative Caucus media position on the platinum level of American Airlines Center and recorded a midterm convention preview from the venue ahead of the convention. It was September 7, 2026, the stage below him was still being patched together, and a restriction was in place: no shots of the floor yet. So the Conservative Caucus president spent the segment doing the next most useful thing — telling viewers exactly what TCC would broadcast over the following two days, who was already confirmed to walk into the booth, why the party called a convention in a midterm year at all, and where to go to find the stream. This is the tour he gave.
Topics Covered
- The View From the Platinum Level: 80% of the Seats
- Why a Midterm Convention: Two Days With Donald Trump
- What TCC Will Broadcast: Cut-Ins, Live Feeds, Ten Hours a Day
- Zeldin, Paxton, Collins: Who Is Coming to the Booth
- Media Row: CNN, CBS, ABC — and Fox News Below
- How to Follow the Midterm Convention Preview and the Coverage
- Key Takeaways
The View From the Platinum Level: 80% of the Seats
Pfaff opened this midterm convention preview by naming the constraint he was working under. The Caucus was broadcasting from inside the building, but the convention floor was off limits to cameras while crews were still assembling the stage.
“We cannot yet show you the floor, but I’m looking at it right here. It’s going to be beautiful.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
What he could describe was the position itself. The Conservative Caucus studio sits on the platinum level of the arena, the suite tier, looking down the length of the room to the stage. Pfaff put a number on the sight line rather than calling it good.
“I’m looking right now, as you look at me, straight down to the stage. I can literally see 80% of every seat in the stadium right from where we’re at, except for the stuff on top of me and straight below me.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
That is the whole argument for the spot, and it is the first thing this midterm convention preview establishes. A camera position that takes in 80 percent of the seats can show a room filling, a room reacting and a room emptying — the things a podium shot leaves out. Pfaff said the perspective feels like the front row of the stadium because of how the booth looks down onto the stage, and told viewers they were going to get a front row seat to it, literally a front row seat to it.
A Media Position, Bought and Paid For
Pfaff was explicit that the location was not a courtesy. The Conservative Caucus made an investment to get a media position, a key media position, on the American Airlines Center platinum level. It was his first time in the building, which he called one of the best arenas he has watched a basketball game in — it is the home of the Dallas Mavericks — and he said television does not do the same justice to how good it is. The broadcast he was recording, he told viewers at the end, was a test: not his best background, with a better one coming.
Why a Midterm Convention: Two Days With Donald Trump
The party has not done this before. A national convention in a midterm year, with a two-day program and a presidential keynote, is a new instrument, and Pfaff’s midterm convention preview gave the reason for building it in one sentence about what the two days are for.
“This is going to be an amazing two days in Dallas, Texas, with Donald Trump getting the message out that frankly sometimes Republicans have been really bad at getting out about why Americans need to stand with Republicans in November.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
Read that carefully and it is a criticism of his own side before it is a promotion. The message exists. The case for standing with Republicans in November exists. What has been missing, in Pfaff’s assessment, is Republicans getting it out — and the convention is two days of concentrated attention in which the President does that work from a stage. That is why the Caucus paid to be in the room: to chronicle what’s going on for two days, as he put it, and to deliver it with a perspective that, he told viewers, you’re just not getting a lot of places.
TCC set out the same case in its preview of the RNC Midterm Convention in Dallas, and it shapes what the Caucus chose to cover. It is not just what you see on the stage, as Pfaff put it — which is why the booth schedule he read out leads with candidates.
What TCC Will Broadcast: Cut-Ins, Live Feeds, Ten Hours a Day
The production plan Pfaff described in the midterm convention preview has three moving parts. The first is commentary timed against the program itself.
“We’re going to be coming in live during the event, particularly in interludes or where there are speeches that you may or may not be interested in, or we can give perspective on.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
The second is carriage of the main event where the Caucus is permitted to carry it: if they can, Pfaff said, they will put in a live feed when major speakers are speaking, whether it is Donald Trump or Vice President J.D. Vance or people from the administration. The third is everything that happens off the stage — behind-the-scenes segments with Tiffany Savage, the Caucus fundraising director, and Mario Balaban, its communications director, the three of whom, Pfaff said, have contacts all over the building. The team would be moving around the stadium as well, and Pfaff said he would keep doing the outside interviews he does regularly, remotely, all week long, with those posted as well.
“We’ll be running ten hours or more a day.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
Ten hours a day is a volume commitment, and it sets the standard the schedule has to meet: the Caucus is not covering this convention with a nightly wrap. Pfaff’s team — he named Bob Hulsy, Art Harman and Tiffany Savage — has been posting across TCC’s channels throughout, and he said everybody is participating. His instruction to viewers was mechanical: come back to the same place you are seeing this, because that is where it will be.
Zeldin, Paxton, Collins: Who Is Coming to the Booth
Prompted off-camera by Savage for names he could reveal, Pfaff gave three. Lee Zeldin was coming. So was Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general running for the Senate. So was Mike Collins, the Georgia congressman running for the Senate against Jon Ossoff. Pfaff flagged the last two as two key races, and gave the state of play in each.
Texas first. Paxton is not challenging an incumbent.
“He’s actually, in a sense, defending this seat because it’s an open seat. Obviously, he defeated John Cornyn in the primary.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
The Caucus took a side in that primary — we stood for that, Pfaff said, we’re very happy about it, and we really want Ken to win — and he said Paxton has apparently got a race on his hands. The complication is institutional: Pfaff said the NRSC, the Senate Republican campaign committee, is saying it is not getting into this race at all and is telling Donald Trump’s group to do it. His answer was that TCC is going to get involved, because this is an important win.
Georgia is the harder read, and Pfaff was candid that the conventional wisdom runs against him. No one is predicting that Ossoff is defeated, he said, but that can happen in Georgia — because Georgia is not a blue state. There is a lot of blue there, he allowed, and you always have to have a fight and work it hard, but it is still a Republican state. The obstacles he named sit on the Republican side of the ledger as much as the Democrat one: what has gone on in Fulton County, and Governor Brian Kemp fighting against conservative Republican activists, including friends of his who were becoming county chairmen before Kemp’s people came in and shut them out of the process. His conclusion was about motivation rather than persuasion — Republican voters in Georgia want good Republicans elected in that state, and they just need to be given the urging to move forward and to work hard. Collins has been a member of Congress for a while, and Pfaff said he thinks Collins can beat Ossoff, especially with some of the mistakes Ossoff is making right now.
The Two Senate Races in the Frame
Pfaff singled out Texas and Georgia in this midterm convention preview as two key races. In Texas, Ken Paxton defends an open seat after beating John Cornyn in the primary, with the NRSC on the sidelines by its own account. In Georgia, Jon Ossoff is the incumbent nobody is predicting will lose, running in a state Pfaff insists is still Republican. TCC’s wider target list and the races on it are set out in its coverage of the November battleground races heading into election night.
Media Row: CNN, CBS, ABC — and Fox News Below
The last thing Pfaff showed off in the midterm convention preview, without being able to show it, was the neighborhood. The Caucus is not covering this convention from a hotel room.
“We’re on the same level broadcasting with CNN, with CBS News, with ABC News. We’ve also got NTD News, and Real America’s Voice is here.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
Fox News is directly below the TCC position, in the tier of suites Pfaff described as the gold platinum ones. And the seat that matters most during the program is behind him: where Donald Trump is sitting, he said, is going to be right behind where I’m at, so you’re going to be able to see it all right from here. That geography is the reason the booth shots carry information a studio set cannot fake.
He also wanted credit for the set dressing — he hoped viewers liked the Conservative Caucus neon sign, which he called one of the coolest things we got going here. It is a small thing attached to a serious one: a grassroots organization formed in 1974 built a working television position on media row between the legacy networks, and it did it because, in Pfaff’s words, this is our spot, we are right in the middle of it.
How to Follow the Midterm Convention Preview and the Coverage
Pfaff ended the midterm convention preview the way he opened it, with logistics. Everything routes through theconservativecaucus.com. The streaming banner on the front page carries a link to all of TCC’s social media sites, so viewers can pick whichever platform they are most comfortable with and watch there, live and recorded. His instruction was to find that link and make a note of where you are watching, so that you cannot miss a moment — because the next few days would be packed, and much of what the Caucus planned would not be scheduled in advance.
Two other items of business came with it. Questions go to info@theconservativecaucus.com, and Pfaff said the Caucus would follow up on them. And on the day before the convention opened, TCC gathered its donors at the Fairmont Dallas hotel in downtown Dallas from 1 to 4 PM — billed as a fundraiser but, in Pfaff’s description, really a gathering event for the thousands of donors who have given five- and six-figure lifetime totals to advance a conservative, constitutionalist agenda. Anyone in the area catching the stream was welcome to come by. Access to the suite itself was still being worked out, he said, and not everybody would be able to get up there, but the Caucus would try to get as many as it could.
The sign-off was a staff credit. Pfaff called the broadcast a test with a background he was not satisfied with, said a better one was coming, and said he has a staff working their tails off to make this work well.
Key Takeaways
- The midterm convention preview came from a bought position, not a borrowed one – The Conservative Caucus made an investment to get a key media position on the platinum level of American Airlines Center, looking straight down to the stage. Pfaff said he can literally see 80% of every seat in the stadium from it.
- A venue restriction held the floor shots – Crews were still patching the stage together on September 7, so Pfaff recorded this midterm convention preview without showing the floor, and said TCC was being respectful of the rule.
- The convention exists to make a case Republicans have not been making – Two days in Dallas with Donald Trump getting out the message that, in Pfaff’s words, Republicans have sometimes been really bad at getting out: why Americans need to stand with Republicans in November.
- Ten hours or more a day of coverage – Live cut-ins during interludes and speeches TCC can add perspective to, a live feed of major speakers where permitted, booth interviews, behind-the-scenes segments with Tiffany Savage and Mario Balaban, and remote interviews continuing all week.
- Three guests confirmed before the doors opened – Lee Zeldin, Ken Paxton and Mike Collins, with Paxton defending an open Texas seat he won by beating John Cornyn in the primary and Collins challenging Jon Ossoff in a state Pfaff insists is not a blue state.
- The NRSC is sitting out Texas – Pfaff said the Senate Republican campaign committee is telling Donald Trump’s group to handle the Paxton race. His answer was that TCC is going to get involved, because this is an important win.
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The Conservative Caucus is a grassroots public policy action organization, formed in 1974. Headed by President Jim Pfaff, the Caucus is committed to advancing free enterprise, limited government, and traditional values.
Originally broadcast Sep 7, 2026 from The Conservative Caucus media suite at the 2026 RNC Midterm Convention venue in Dallas, ahead of the convention.
Peter J. Thomas is a veteran conservative political strategist and seasoned policy expert dedicated to upholding the principles of the Constitution and democracy. As a founder and the chairman of the Conservative Caucus, he has played a pivotal role in promoting and shaping the conservative agenda across the nation for over half a century.