Paul Ryan to Republicans: ‘Go into Inner Cities, Go into Minority Communities’

Former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan thinks Republicans need to take their limited-government message to voters who are “unfamiliar with hearing us.”

“Go into inner cities, go into minority communities,” Ryan, who speaks in Iowa tonight, told The Des Moines Register in a telephone interview on Monday. “Go into communities that have not seen or heard from Republicans in a long time.”

Ryan, a congressman from Wisconsin, was responding to a question about whether lessons can be learned from Republican wins in blue states, like Gov. Chris Christie’s victory in the governor’s race in Democratic-leaning New Jersey on Nov. 5.

“Absolutely,” Ryan answered. “It shows that we have to go and campaign in non-traditional areas, non-traditional neighborhoods, and by showing up not just a few months before the election, but by being in these communities all year round, that will make a difference.

“What Chris’s victory shows is that conservatives can win blue states if we focus on being inclusive and campaigning in every facet of this country, we can open up the electoral map, far more than where it has been.”

Today, Ryan returned to politically important Iowa for the first time since he and Mitt Romney barnstormed through the state a year ago trying to win the White House. The occasion: a speech tonight at a fundraiser for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a fellow Republican. {snip}

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Asked last week about his ambitions for the White House in 2016, Ryan told the Register that once he finishes his current term in Congress (his eighth), “I’m going to give a hard look at it.”

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