Rare News Desk
Reince Priebus is the 65th chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), a position he has held since January 2011. A Wisconsin native and lawyer, he previously had a long, successful career serving the Grand Old Party in the Badger State as a congressional district chairman, state party treasurer, first vice chair and state party chairman. According to his RNC bio, “During Reince’s tenure, Republicans in Wisconsin not only defeated Russ Feingold by electing Ron Johnson to the U.S. Senate, but they gained two additional U.S. House seats, won the Governor’s office, took back both the state Assembly and the state Senate while defeating the leaders of both of those chambers.” Reelected to his national office four months ago, Mr. Priebus will be the seventh RNC chairman to serve four years in that prominent role. You can find out more about him and Republican Party policies at GOP.com
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Decker: The 2012 election was terrible for the GOP, which now has lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential contests. Is this losing streak a problem of style, substance, or both? What do conservatives need to do to start winning national elections again.
Priebus: This is something that the RNC has addressed with the Growth and Opportunity Project, which will act as a blueprint for how the party can win the White House in 2016.
A look at the exit polling from the 2012 election shows that while the President won big in the Electoral College, he did not run away with the popular vote. There is not one reason why Gov. Romney lost the election, but we know that we need to increase Republican turnout and engage new demographics that we have previously ignored. And we need to do a better job of showing people how our platform helps them.
Republican governors have had great success at winning votes and showing people how the party’s policies help them. Just this week, Chief Executive Magazine found that all of the top 10 states for business were all led by Republican governors. This means that at a national level, we need to recreate what our governors have done at the state level.
Decker: After the electoral thumping Republicans received last year, you commissioned an RNC report that was released recently called “The Growth and Opportunity Project.” This has stirred up a storm of controversy. Why are so many conservatives upset about this document, and what do you have to say to allay their fears?
Priebus: The Growth and Opportunity Project is a document the RNC had put together after we lost the 2012 election. The report is a compilation of more than 36,000 online surveys, 800 conference calls, 3,000 listening sessions, 50 focus groups, 500 one-on-one phone calls and 250 one-on-one meetings. As made clear in the report, there are multiple reasons we lost the election: Our message was weak; our ground game insufficient; we weren’t inclusive enough; we were behind in both data and digital; and our primary as well as debate process needs improvement. So the Growth and Opportunity Project does not have one solution but a long list of recommendations.
This project is not about changing our principles or our beliefs. It does not change what the Republican Party stands for; instead, it gives suggestions on how we can do a better job of winning the next election.
Decker: One of the things we’re concentrating on doing at Rare is finding where the common ground is for all the various constituencies on the right. What are the main unifying issues for Republicans that have a chance at enlarging the GOP’s share of the vote and making it a majority party again?
Priebus: We truly are a nation conceived in liberty – whether you want to start your own business, practice your religion, or educate your children – we believe that the government exists to preserve freedom and opportunity, not take it away. And that American exceptionalism is something that each of us must fight to preserve for the next generation.
Decker: One negative consequence of Republican infighting is it can take the focus of attention off of President Obama and all the awful things he’s trying to do to the country. It also overlooks that conservatives are gaining ground on a lot of issues, especially at the state level. Amidst all the party doom and gloom, what’s going right for elephants these days?
Priebus: Look no further than the 30 Republican governors who are leading their states away from debt towards surpluses. They are encouraging private-sector growth and are using their states as laboratories for democracy. Recently Chief Executive Magazine asked CEO’s opinions about the best and worst states for business and all of the top 10 are governed by Republicans. The governors are showing our country how government is supposed to work; they are demonstrating the value of limited, pro-business government and are leading our country out of a recession caused by a big and bloated government addicted to its own deficit spending.
Decker: America is at a crossroads in so many ways. What do you worry about when you can’t sleep at night?
Priebus: When I can’t sleep, the future of our country weighs on my mind. Our party believes in American exceptionalism; ingenuity, the American Dream, liberty and freedom. The American experiment – an idea based on the “immortal doctrine” that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” – is the birthright of all our citizens, but each generation must ensure its success. I fear that my children could come of age in a country their grandparents would not recognize, let alone our Founders. If the Republican Party fails, our country will continue down this path of big government cronyism and the destruction of individual liberty. It is why I am blessed to come to work each day to fight for these principles and why each of us must work to elect more conservative leaders around the country.
Brett M. Decker is Editor-in-Chief of Rare. Follow him on Twitter @BrettMDecker
