Sandy Maisel Professor of government, Colby College :
There are, of course, two camps on this question.
In my view, the demographic changes in the country require a significant reassessment by the Republican Party. But the real question is, “Who is ‘the Republican Party'?” Pragmatic party leaders understand that the Senate was within reach but lost by running far right, tea party-backed candidates. But those leaders could not persuade the primary electorate. Thus Lugar and Akin won in 2012 primaries; O’Donnell beat Mike Castle in 2010, etc. So, “the Republican Party” gets the problem, but whether they can effect change in their own primary voters remains in doubt.
The party succeeds electorally when it is a center-right party, not when its candidates are outliers. Mitt Romney closed the gap when he moved toward to center. These lessons are easy to learn, but implementing changes is much more difficult.