On Election Day, Obama’s campaign was confident in victory, believing it knew exactly who was going to show up. Romney’s campaign, and many other Republicans, were surprised by the electorate, which included a higher proportion of minority voters than they had expected.

Harris said the Republican National Committee needs to invest tens of millions over the next two years to hire a talented and forward-thinking digital team that can help Republican candidates harness cutting-edge technologies. The team would develop a proprietary voter database for the RNC to target likely supporters in swing states.

“Only the RNC is uniquely positioned to fix this problem,” Harris said. “This has to be the time that the party comes together and starts talking to each other.”

The RNC has the money for a big investment. Chairman Reince Priebus announced this month that the committee is “completely debt-free.”