GOP hoping to get a handle on internal crisis at this year's CPAC: 'Can we pull together?'

Republicans are hoping to regroup and rally at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, although President Donald Trump will be notably absent for the first time since he took over as the party's dominant figure.

CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp is hoping to rein in GOP infighting at this year's event, which will be held in suburban Dallas, and is warning that internal divisions could hurt Republican chances of holding on to their congressional majorities in this fall's midterm elections, reported Reuters.

"If some of the luminaries of MAGA are all at each other's throats in a kind of continued disunity, I think that could be devastating in the midterm elections," Schlapp told Reuters. "The question is: Can we pull together to get the right guys elected and hold on to the majorities? That's one of the intents of this conference."

Trump won't attend for the first time in a decade, but his rise in 2016 has reshaped the tone of "Woodstock for conservatives" into a more personality-driven event, but the list of speakers does not include anyone who's likely to criticize him outright.

"It seems to me that they are engaged in a kind of politics of comfort," said John K. White, professor emeritus at The Catholic University of America. "They're isolating themselves in a way that prevents the party, in a lot ⁠of ways, from moving forward to being a majority party in the country."

Schlapp described this year's theme as "action over words," and the speaker lineup is headlined by administration officials like Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), former Trump adviser and podcaster Steve Bannon and MAGA influencer Nick Shirley will also speak, as well as Poland’s nationalist president, Karol Nawrocki, and Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.

CPAC will hold a straw poll Saturday for the 2028 presidential race, and all eyes will be on the growing rivalry between Vice President JD Vance, who was the heavy favorite last year, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has seen his star rise during Trump's military operations around the world.