It's not necessarily that they can't convince, it's that they get diluted by stalking horse libertarian candidates whose sole purpose is to keep the GOPe incumbent in place.
-PJ
Well, that’s true. The problem with a lot of states is that there are simply too many “conservative” candidates and that there is then generally a libertarian who muddies the waters.
That’s why I think we’ve got to really push during the primaries to get one strong contender to emerge. The RINOs have only one; non-RINOs seem to have a minimum of three (not to mention the libertarian), which means that all the votes are concentrated by the RINO.
Also, states with open primaries have got to stop this practice! That should be a target for all conservative groups in any state that has open primaries.