The U.S. Republican Party concluded in a self-assessment released Monday that it lost last year's national elections because much of the American electorate increasingly views Republicans as "out of touch" or the party of "stuffy old men."
Democratic President Barack Obama won a second term in the November election, and Democrats picked up seats in both the Senate and House of Representatives, although Republicans still control a majority in the House. It was the fifth presidential election in the last six that the Democratic candidates have won the popular vote.
With that trend, and polls showing younger and minority voters increasingly favoring Democratic candidates, the national Republican Party commissioned an in-depth look at what went wrong.
Party Chairman Reince Priebus said Monday "there's no one reason we lost." But he cited a litany of shortcomings. He said Republicans and presidential candidate Mitt Romney had a "weak message" and poor political operations, while the lengthy party nominating and debate process proved detrimental and needs to be shortened.
The report concluded that "young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents, and many minorities wrongly think that Republicans do not like them or want them in the country. When someone rolls their eyes at us, they are not likely to open their ears to us."
Among other things, the report recommended that the party embark on a $10 million marketing campaign aimed at minorities, women and gays to try to convince them that they have a home in the party, and that the Republicans' generally more conservative policies would work to their advantage.