Politics

How the GOP plans to win minorities, find dirt on Democrats and attract the MTV vote

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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Why did Republicans fail to stop Barack Obama from winning another four years in the White House and what can they do to get back on the path to victory?

Those are the topics tackled inside the 100-page report being released by the Republican National Committee’s Growth and Opportunity Project on Monday.

“The GOP today is a tale of two parties,” the report states. “One of them, the gubernatorial wing, is growing and successful. The other, the federal wing, is increasingly marginalizing itself, and unless changes are made, it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another presidential election in the near future.”

Inside the review obtained by The Daily Caller — which was publicly released at a press conference Monday morning in Washington — are recommendations on how to grow the party and do things to better attract Hispanics, blacks, Asian Americas, women and the youth.

One way to attract younger votes, the report states, is having Republican leaders spend more time going on “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report” and MTV, and giving interviews to publications like People and Us Weekly.

Citing the never-ending debates during the 2012 Republican primaries, the committee recommends changes to how the party nominates its presidential candidates, including reducing the number of televised showdowns during the primary season by 50 percent.

And citing how outside Democratic groups successfully dug up dirt on Republican candidates in 2012, the committee suggests that well-funded conservative groups improve their opposition research on Democrats in order “to define our opponents as early as possible in the process.”

A large chunk of the report is dedicated to the changing demographics of the country. “If we want ethnic minority voters to support Republicans, we have to engage them and show our sincerity,” the report states.

New ideas proposed include the RNC hiring Hispanic political workers in key states and areas across the country and investing more financial resources in Hispanic media.

“If Hispanic Americans hear that the GOP doesn’t want them in the United States, they won’t pay attention to our next sentence,” the report states. “It doesn’t matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy.”

As for reaching African-Americans, the committee proposes spending more time engaging historically black colleges and universities on Republican ideas.

In terms of reaching the youth, the committee states that, “Already, there is a generational difference within the conservative movement about issues involving the treatment and the rights of gays — and for many younger voters, these issues are a gateway into whether the Party is a place they want to be.”

“For the GOP to appeal to younger voters, we do not have to agree on every issue, but we do need to make sure young people do not see the Party as totally intolerant of alternative points of view.”

“We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian, and gay Americans and demonstrate that we care about them, too.”

As for doing better on digging up dirt on Democrats, the committee suggests that “Well-funded conservative groups should seek to hire activists to track Democrat incumbents and candidates with video cameras constantly recording their every movement, utterance, and action.”

“An allied group dedicated solely to research to establish a private archive and public website that does nothing but post inappropriate Democrat utterances and act as a clearinghouse for information on Democrats would serve as an effective vehicle for affecting the public issue debate,” the report states.

The report also argues that, “Debates must remain a central element of the GOP nominating process, but in recent years there have been too many debates, and they took place too early.”

“The number of debates should be reduced by roughly half to a still robust number of approximately 10 to 12, with the first occurring no earlier than September 1, 2015, and the last ending just after the first several primaries (February — March 2016).”

The RNC says the members of the Growth and Opportunity Project spoke to more than 2,600 people as they drafted this document.

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