Over the weekend, at the nominating convention of the Republican Party of Virginia, a parade of speakers criticized the I.R.S. to energize 8,000 party stalwarts to campaign for Republican nominees for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general this year.

Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster, said the I.R.S. inquiry had raised distrust of government, an issue on which independent voters agree with Republicans. “The irony is the Republican Party is trying to rebrand itself to attract more women, minorities and independents,” she said. “The I.R.S. scandal may have helped them — for free.”

Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, a political action committee that has funneled millions of dollars to Tea Party candidates, said the I.R.S. actions precisely illustrated the movement’s founding critique that big government leads to abuse of power.

“It all feeds into this narrative, which makes 2014 look a lot more like 2010,” he said. “We won’t have the clutter of a presidential race. We’re going to be able to connect with the broader values of Americans who don’t think federal agencies should choose winners and losers.”

But Representative Steve Israel of New York, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Republicans were overplaying their hand, as illustrated by the long series of investigations they plan in Congress.