Karl Rove: GOP Needs to 'Get Up Off the Mat' & Find More Diverse Candidates

Republican strategist Karl Rove speaks at a luncheon at the California Republican Party convention, in Sacramento, Calif. , Saturday, March 2, 2013. (Photo: AP)

(TheBlaze/AP) -- GOP strategist Karl Rove said Saturday that rebuilding the Republican brand in California will be a tough task that will require them to diversify and create a strategy to spread their message to a wider audience.

Referring to the state party's deep losses in recent years, Rove said it needs to focus on larger themes of restoring jobs and reducing government spending.

He also said the party must recruit candidates who reflect the diversity of the country, and in particular, California. By next year, Hispanics will overtake whites as the state's largest demographic group.

"We need to be asking for votes in the most powerful way possible, which is to have people asking for the vote who are comfortable and look like and sound like the people that we're asking for the vote from," Rove said according to the Associated Press.

His message to delegates, activists and local party officials throughout California was in line with the philosophy behind his new political action committee, the Conservative Victory Project. The committee was established to support Republican candidates it deems electable, offsetting GOP candidates who might offend key parts of the electorate.

Republican strategist Karl Rove gestures while at a luncheon at the California Republican Party convention, in Sacramento, Calif. , Saturday, March 2, 2013. (Photo: AP)

Rove added that the winning combination will come with a mixture of better strategy and a broader explanation of Republican principles.

"If our values are universal then we have obligation to argue on behalf of values in every corner, in every crevice, in every community of our great country," he declared.

Rove told activists at the Republican Party's spring convention in Sacramento that rebuilding would be "a big task," but offered Texas as an example. Once a Democratic stronghold, the state elected Republicans to 95 of 150 state House seats in November. Democrats have not won a statewide office in Texas since 1994.

Republicans hold the opposite status in California, where Democrats won supermajorities in the Legislature last fall and hold every statewide office. The GOP accounts for less than 30 percent of the state's voters and has been losing favor with Latinos, women and younger voters.

"It's not just the tactical stuff," Rove stated. "[We've] got a strategic issue. We have great principles, but we sometimes talk about those principles in a way that makes it sound like it's in 1968 or 1980 or 2000 and it's not. It's 2012 on its way to 2014."

The former George W. Bush aide said rebuilding the California Republican Party might be so tough that party activists might choose to continue on their current path, "or you can get up off of the mat and throw yourself back into this contest."

"Think smart, be active, be committed, rebuild the organization, ask for the vote in the right way, and speak boldly and proudly about our universal principles in a way that attracts support of your fellow Californians," he said.

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