As part of the first evening of Western Conservative Political Action Conference, Ralph Reed spoke about the need for conservatives to run aggressively in all 50 states. The founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition noted that the changing demographics of the US requires conservatives to broaden the message and get better at communicating and organizing in order to win elections in the future. “Raising a bunch of money and putting it on TV” won’t win elections any more. The Tea Parties give conservatives a big opening for organizing, and Reed says that its bottom-up nature shows the untapped power in the electorate:

“We have to take this energy and guide it into a plan for victory.”

Reed also discusses the notion of a third party arising from the Tea Party movement, but warns against it. Reed doesn’t consider it an impossibility, but structurally, the American political system would make it very difficult to win elections for several years if they wind up splitting the vote on the Right. Better to contest primary election, Reed advises, to get better conservatives into the general elections.