US REPUBLICANS released a scathing report on Monday (March 18) on their disappointment in November’s presidential vote, urging their party to broaden its appeal to minority voters before the next election.
“Unless changes are made, it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another presidential election in the near future,” the 98-page document concluded, seeking to guide the party’s latest bout of soul-searching.
The report, dubbed a post-election “autopsy” by the media, follows President Barack Obama’s easy victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney at the polls – an election many party leaders were confident they would win.
Chastened by their showing, the party announced this week it will spend $10m (£6.62m) this year on programs to repair one of its greatest vulnerabilities, its low level of support among Hispanic, Asian and African-American voters.
Minority voters in the US tend to vote heavily Democratic and their numbers are growing much more quickly than are those of white Americans.
This means Republicans are facing a losing numbers game unless they abandon election strategies geared to its base of white male voters.
“We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian and gay Americans and demonstrate that we care about them, too,” the report concluded.
Overall, Obama carried 80 per cent support from minority voters, who will represent more than half of all US voters by 2050, according to data from the US Census Bureau.
The head of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, unveiled the report at a high-profile event in Washington on Monday.
“The RNC cannot and will not write off any demographic, community, or region of this country,” Priebus told reporters at the National Press Club, as he summed up the document’s bottom-line conclusions.
Priebus said the analysis of the party’s shortcomings – the product of extensive polling, focus groups and interviews with some 50,000 people – concluded that many of the party’s biggest problems have been self-inflicted.
“The perception that we’re the party of the rich continues to grow,” Priebus said, in remarks that came four months after the failed candidacy of its multi-millionaire standard bearer Romney.
Priebus said that while inept messaging has hurt the Republicans, its core message and values remain strong, insisting: “Our policies are sound, but the way we communicate is a real problem.”
The analysis encouraged Republicans to make a concerted outreach effort to Latino voters. The word “Hispanic” appears 99 times, suggesting the importance the party attaches to Latinos as it considers its future.
Another shortcoming highlighted is in the area of immigration policy. New immigrants and their relatives flock to the Democrats, believing Republicans are unwelcoming and inflexible, it warns.
Romney infamously declared during a campaign debate with Obama that, rather than simply rounding up undocumented immigrants, the US should somehow encourage them to “self deport.”
“If they find that – that they can’t get the benefits here that they want and they can’t – and they can’t find the job they want, then they’ll make a decision to go a place where – where they have better opportunities,” he said.
The Republican document rejected Romney’s approach.
“If Hispanic Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States (ie: self-deportation), they will not pay attention to our next sentence,” it said.
“Among the steps Republicans take in the Hispanic community and beyond, we must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our party’s appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only.
The post-mortem urged Republicans to work harder to appeal to the youth vote – another group that broke decidedly for Democrats last November.
“We do need to make sure young people do not see the party as totally intolerant of alternative points of view,” it said.
“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.”
