5 Messaging and Demographic Points to Grow the GOP: A Young, Female Republican View of the Growth and Opportunity Platform

[Editor’s Note: Rachel Dodsworth was recently elected Vice Chair of the Chatham County Republican Party. With her expertise on social media and messaging for politics, we asked her to weigh in with some suggestions on whether and how to implement some of the recommendations from the RNC’s “Growth and Opportunity Project” and this is the first of several posts from Rachel on the topic. You may follow Rachel on Twitter @rldods.]

On Monday the Republican National Committee released the Republican National Committee’s “Growth and Opportunity Project” report, which is supposed to identify some lessons learned from the 2012 election cycle. One of those lessons was that the party must broaden its appeal to women and youth, and this young female Republican has also been doing some thinking about how to revitalize the party.

So here are some of those thoughts related to the report’s “Messaging” and “Demographic Partners” sections. Later this week, I will also share my views on how we can improve based on the “Campaign Mechanics” and “Friends and Allies” sections.

1) Conservative Temperature Overestimated

One thing the “Growth and Opportunity Project” report overlooks is the political perception of the country during the last election cycle. Because only Republicans had a presidential primary this cycle, all the attention on their candidates and issues fooled them into thinking the country was more conservative than it actually was.

Democrats were similarly overconfident in 1972 about their presidential candidate George McGovern’s chances against incumbent Richard Nixon. Democrats thought Americans were eager to end the Vietnam War and get rid of Nixon as whispers of the Watergate scandal were coming out, but in the end the county was not as liberal as they thought and Nixon won in a landslide.

This is a warning from history that we shouldn’t mistake media coverage for momentum, which brings me to my next point.

2) “The Republican Party needs to stop talking to itself.”

This line from report hits the nail on the head. We need to look outward to others, instead of inward to our own organizational problems. It is time for the GOP to invite people in and inspire them to lead, and everyone knows the best leaders lead by example.

Within the GOP, disagreement shouldn’t be a crime, but instead an opportunity to learn from others’ point of view and life experiences. We should engage in thoughtful discourse, and not be so personally sensitive that disagreement spills into ugly public intra-party disputes.

Just as the Republican Party needs to quit talking about itself, it needs to elaborate on positive messaging and focus on the constituents.

3) “Talk about people and families, not just numbers and statistics”

Political junkies often need to remember to step back and take a look at what matters to the people. Yes, that position statement sounds good on paper associated with a few Excel bar charts, but is that really the best way to get the message across to the voters? Are these statistics going to really excite the voter?

Republicans must keep it simple and close to personal everyday life when articulating plans and policies. Yes, I love talking about effective tax rates versus actual tax rates, but the part constituents care about is the opportunity to have more “take home pay” and grow their personal wealth to achieve the American dream.

The report points out that “Democrats tend to talk about people, [while] Republicans tend to talk about policy.” The Republican Party needs to highlight positive polices to excite people and grow our base.

4) “We sound increasingly out of touch.”

Nationally there are no arguments here – the Republican Party needs to adapt and grow just like any other entity in order to avoid failure. Just as Republicans staunchly disapprove of bailouts when companies fail, preferring to let the market correct failures and create new products to fill the void, we should allow the “market” to dictate the need for a new product – a new GOP.

To show that we care, rather than just saying we do, the Republican Party must be active in the community year-round. We should not be heavily active every 4 years then moderately active every 2 years. Staying in touch will allow us to focus our state-level messaging and work with more diverse groups.

Being active in the community will allow us to expand our base and be more in touch with what is going on. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said it best: “People in the middle need to feel that someone is fighting for them. They want someone who will fundamentally look out for them as a voter.” Looking out for the voter is key, and this is why Republicans cannot forget about younger, more diverse demographics.

5) “The Republican Party is one of tolerance and respect, and we need to ensure that the tone of our message is always reflective of these core principles.”

It is no secret that the Republican Party has a demographics problem that arises from our messaging, but this is a major problem. Republicans will simply be unable to win elections without the single female vote and youth vote (yes, we need other demographics, but due to word constraints I am focusing on these two). We must work together to invite people of all demographics to the party and let them know we respect their beliefs.

Most importantly, we must keep registered Republican women voters voting for us! Having seen Ken Buck lose the Senate race in 2010 due to registered Republican women voting against us, I warned my friends that this would be a major part of Romney’s downfall, but most people laughed me off. That was before Obama won the 40 percent of women who are single by 36 points. We cannot afford to disenfranchise women and must consider them as equals at the table if the Republican Party wishes to have a future.

Apart from women, we must bring in the younger voter. I think I could convince most of my fellow young voters to skydive with me (or do something more dangerous) before I could ever get them to consider voting Republican. The GOP must establish a network of committed young voters who will help spread the message and try to remove the stigma associated with Republicanism among people my age. Once we have younger voters on board, they will bring their enthusiastic voices to their friends and neighbors.

Stay tuned for my views on how we can improve based on the “Campaign Mechanics” and “Friends and Allies” sections of the “Growth and Opportunity Platform” report.