COLUMBUS – Republicans failed to connect to voters on the economy and must move away from talking about social issues to win in the future.
 
That’s the message Ohio Republican Party deputy chair Kevin DeWine delivered Thursday during a wide-ranging, hour-long briefing with reporters at party headquarters. DeWine said poor messaging from John McCain, a rotten national environment and Barack Obama’s clear message and technologically advanced ground campaign were the main reasons the GOP was defeated.
 
With the economy facing declining stock prices and rising unemployment and most voters saying the county is on the wrong track, McCain talked too much about national security and was too defensive in his overall message, DeWine said. 

“Senator McCain, his strength was on an issue that candidly was not the number one issue on the minds of Americans and voters,” he said. “And he suffered from the fact that Obama was able to talk about ‘change’ and ‘hope’ and this was a change election.”
 
DeWine said the GOP has had a “distracting focus on social issues” and that it must now focus more on economics.
 
“We have to exchange a fiscal message and an economic message in for the social message that has dominated the messaging of this party for the past decade,” DeWine said, adding that the party must craft an agenda that focuses on the middle class and create messages that target voters more through the Internet.
 
Despite this week’s drubbing, Republicans punched above their weight and Obama underperformed, he said.
 
“I think that Republican candidates were far more competitive this year than the political environment would have suggested was historically possible,” DeWine said.
 
Despite an advanced get out the vote operation, Obama still earned fewer votes in Ohio than John Kerry received four years ago, DeWine said, adding that Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor (R) won more votes than Obama.

In addition, DeWine said Republicans have held seven of their 11 U.S. House seats, and may hold the 15th Congressional District.
 
As for state offices, DeWine said GOP lost the state House by hundreds of votes between select races and had incumbents Bob Spada and Jim Raussen retire about three months before Election Day, which gave Democratic challengers the edge.
 
However, the GOP has held the state Senate by a large margin and taken both Supreme Court seats that were up for re-election this year. In addition, attorney general candidate Mike Crites (R) won about half of the state’s counties in his failed bid for office. These show that the GOP was still viable, DeWine said.
 
“I think the Republican candidates were far more competitive this year than the political environment would have suggested was historically possible,” DeWine said.