The Republican Party is shrinking for many different reasons, and the party leadership knows it. In 2012, they were shellacked by the Democrats; the GOP lost two Senate seats, eight House Seats and failed to unseat Obama by 64 electoral votes. Shortly thereafter, Reince Priebus, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), called on a review panel to analyze the party as a whole. What they created was a document called the Growth & Opportunity Project. The “GOP” outlined specific steps the party could take in order to win elections and prosper now as well as in the future.

Here are a few areas that the RNC needed to focus on, which would have allowed them to grow their party:

• Minority Outreach: “If Hispanic Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States (i.e. self-deportation), they will not pay attention to our next sentence.” Failing to address the concerns is exactly why the GOP has been failing to reach Hispanics. If they want to continue to grow their numbers, the GOP must earn the vote of minorities or risk losing future majority minority red states like Georgia and Texas.

• Stop being the “rich, old white businessmen”: In post-election focus groups with people who used to describe themselves as Republicans, people described the Republican Party as “scary,” “narrow minded,” “out of touch,” “stuffy old men.” Shaking this view would allow people to trust what Republicans say, which leads me to the review board’s next point:

• “Republicans don’t care”: The “GOP” has an entire subchapter titled “Some People Say, ‘Republicans don’t care.’” Because Republicans have this “wealthy, old, white guy” image, as stated above, people often do not believe that its politicians genuinely care about the average working man and woman. Again, if the party’s politicians were able to show the American people that they care about all of the people, of any socioeconomic status, then maybe they might continue to grow.

• Millennial Outreach: A lot of the last three points culminate in this one. Millennials are now tied in voting group size with baby boomers, and historically, the GOP has not done well in courting these millennials. This is the single greatest area the RNC can improve on, which could help them win.

It may take some thinking, but if you recall early on in the primary season, there was a man by the name of Rand Paul. Rand Paul is the junior Senator from the state of Kentucky. He also was one of the many candidates running for the Republican nomination for President. He got almost no attention at all, as he was standing in the shadow of a former reality television star. However, this first-term Senator who managed to only get 4.5% of the vote in Iowa could have been the savior to the Republican Party.

The first area in which Sen. Paul could have saved the party is minority voter outreach. Because Sen. Paul is libertarian-esque, some of his ideas definitely appeal to minorities. For instance, during one of the debates, he stated, “I would like to see more rehabilitation and less incarceration. I'm a fan of the drug courts which try to direct you back towards work and less time in jail.” This is something that you hear no other Republican candidate saying. In fact, this would not be the first time Sen. Paul has said something you wouldn’t usually hear a Republican saying. Sen. Paul also believes that the justice system disproportionately affects African American men, and also believes that the War on Drugs had a racial outcome. Again, these are ideas that more Democrats than Republicans would agree with him on. If we want the Republican Party to grow, we need more candidates like Sen. Paul, who can increase the minority Republican voting population.

Moving on to the second idea, Sen. Paul really can’t change much. It’s fairly obvious that he’s white and starting to age at 53 years old. He’s much wealthier than the average American, but his net worth is much lower when compared to other senators. However -moving onto the third point- most of this is irrelevant because he actually cares. He didn’t receive his wealth because he earned “a small loan of a million dollars.” He worked hard in school, became an optometrist, and worked his way up. It’s one of the reasons why Kentucky elected him to the Senate, even though he had no previous political experience. He isn’t just talk, either. He put his money where his mouth is and was one of the only Republicans that visited Ferguson to see firsthand what was happening. Rand Paul cares about the American people, and if more Republicans truly cared about the people that they represent, then they would be able to disprove the “stuffy old men” and “scary” party assumption.

Finally, millennials. Sen. Paul was the Republican candidate that best represented millennials. He was more aligned with millennials on the issues than all of the other Republican candidates. For instance, he is for the legalization of pot. He wants to end government spying of citizens, and he wants less military involvement overseas. These are things most millennials want that only Sen. Paul provided during the election from a Republican. If the Republicans were able to move to the left a little more like Sen. Paul has done, the RNC would be able to capture of the millennial vote. This is where the future of the Republican party lies.

Sen. Paul could have have saved the Republican Party if we would have nominated him. That’s not to say he is the only one put in this situation. Many other politicians are doing similar work and trying to save the future of the party. Congressman Justin Amash and Thomas Massie are great examples of the coalition Sen. Paul is helping to grow. If we can elect people like Senator Paul to public office, we can be the ones that change the Republican Party forever.