Last week’s election left Republicans disappointed that they didn’t win the White House, and wondering what to do next. WMUK’s Gordon Evans spoke with Western Michigan University Political Science Professor Peter Wielhouwer about where the GOP goes from here. Some highlights:

Wielhouwer says there’s a lot of soul searching among Republican activists and they’re not sure the steps to take. He says it’s up in the air right now.

Congressman Fred Upton is coming off the most competitive re-election race of his career against Democrat Mike O’Brien. Wielhouwer says Upton appeared to move to the right in fending off primary challenges from former State Representative Jack Hoogendyk in 2010 and 2012. He says that probably helped O’Brien pick up center-left votes in the general election

Wielhouwer says the primary challenges from “tea party” candidates have two goals. One is to get a more conservative candidate, the other is to push the incumbent to the right. The risk is a Democrat winning the seat, so far it hasn’t happened in many House races.

But “tea party” candidates may have hurt Republican chances to take control of the Senate. Wielhouwer says Republicans missed the chance to defeat vulnerable Democratic candidates by nominating more conservative candidates in both 2010 and 2012.

Wielhouwer says the auto rescue did not help Republicans with voters they needed to compete nationally. He says Republicans, including Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, claimed the auto rescue could not work. So when the auto industry rebounded, it discredited the Republican argument. Wielhouwer says it hurt the Republicans worse when they tried to continue to arguing the same point.

A growing minority population presents challenges for the Republican Party. Wielhouwer says Republicans can make a reasonable case that they have policies that can benefit emerging middle-class minority voters. But they haven’t been able to communicate it.

After a series of electoral defeats, the Democratic Leadership Council was formed in the late 1980’s. The DLC advocated more moderate positions.  Wielhouwer says that may me a model for Republicans. But he says it’s not clear that could work for Republicans with the current makeup of the party.

But Wielhouwer says the good news for Republicans is that politics is cyclical. He says the party needs to come up with a strategy, message and recruitment process that allows them to respond to where the country is, rather than where the Republican establishment wants it to be.

Wielhouwer says he doesn’t think this was a terrible election for Republicans. But he says they do need to address the demographic changes in the country to win future elections. Wielhouwer says Republicans also need to recruit the right candidates and train them on how to deal with sensitive issues such as abortion.