One of Priebus’s top priorities is one of the more sensitive subjects for today’s Republican Party: attracting more ethnic and racial minorities to its ranks. In 2012, for instance, Romney won just 27 percent of the Hispanic vote. Democrats, meanwhile, are eyeing states such as Texas, which they believe can turn from red to at least purple due to the rising number of Hispanic voters.

Priebus has hired hundreds of people across the country to focus on engaging minority groups such as blacks, Hispanics and Asians, through special activities, attending events and advertising. Some of the RNC operatives focus in particular on cultivating relationships with media outlets that cater to minority communities.

The RNC chair noted that the debate schedule had gotten out of hand, plus the media involvement had created a “slice and dice” environment for Republican candidates. However, Preibus still spoke of “media partners,” so I asked him how he planned to address the latter issue if he still planned to partner with mainstream-media outlets. He replied that the RNC is now looking into just going with C-SPAN or perhaps even just their own streaming channel as the outlets for the debates, which I think is the smarter play. People don’t tune in to primary debates because they just happen to be on television or think the moderator is awesome; they tune in because they’re motivated to watch the candidates.  That audience will seek out the debates wherever they are broadcast — and so will the reporters who follow the political beat, whether their orgs get to moderate or not.