WASHINGTON - The warning was stark: In the aftermath of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's 2012 defeat, a GOP report concluded that "unless changes are made" to expand the party's appeal, it would be difficult for the party to "win another presidential election in the near future."

WASHINGTON � The warning was stark: In the aftermath of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney�s 2012 defeat, a GOP report concluded that �unless changes are made� to expand the party�s appeal, it would be difficult for the party to �win another presidential election in the near future.�

Three years after that report urged Republicans nationally to aggressively compete for the votes of women, Latinos, African-Americans and younger people, current polls indicate that the party is on the verge of losing the popular vote in a presidential election for the sixth time in the past seven elections, a record of GOP electoral futility unmatched in its history.

Rather than adopt the recommendations of the 2013 report, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other Republicans �just chose not to follow it,� said Jim Manley, a former adviser to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada.

As a result, poll after poll shows each of those voting blocs, turned off by Trump�s message, lean toward Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

But even before the current campaign, analysts warned the party had lurched too far to the right during the past four decades, failed to adapt to demographic changes that have diluted the voting power of whites, and too often invoked the nostalgic memory of President Ronald Reagan, a fuzzy image to younger Americans.

Although Republicans control both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and hold the governor�s offices in 34 states, the 2013 report flatly concluded that at the presidential level �much of what Republicans are doing is not working beyond the core constituencies� that form the GOP.

�Republicans have been appealing to their core voters, which are enough to carry the mid-term elections,� said Jack Pitney, a professor of political science at Claremont McKenna College in California. �But in the broader general elections, they have a bigger problem, and that problem is going to grow.�

Others insist the problem is less changing demographics and more a lack of message to win the votes of millions of middle-income Americans of all races. Barry Bennett, a former Trump adviser, said Trump�s criticism of international trade agreements and illegal immigration has resonated with the middle class, adding that the real problem is �we have become the party of corporate America� and instead �need to go after real people.�

�We are witnessing a major shift in the electorate,� said Bennett, pointing out that during the past four years in the eight largest Ohio counties, Republicans have gained 170,000 voters while Democrats have lost 150,000. Of course that's partly because many Democrats took out GOP ballots to vote in Ohio's 2016 primary for Gov. John Kasich, who easily defeated Trump.

�Ohio is redder today than it has been in three decades,� Bennett said. �These so-called experts view the electorate as static. It is not. There are 18 million people who voted for George W. Bush in 2004 who are now dead.�

No matter who is right, one thing is certain: From a historical standpoint, Republicans at the presidential level are doing something wrong.

After losing the popular vote in seven of nine presidential elections from 1932 through 1964, Republican presidential candidates won five of six elections from 1968 through 1988. But since 1992, President George W. Bush has been the only Republican to win the presidency, and he even lost the popular vote in 2000 to Democrat Al Gore.

The country�s demographics partly explain why. In 2012, when Romney lost to President Barack Obama, 72 percent of those who voted in the election were white compared with 88 percent in 1980, when Reagan defeated President Jimmy Carter.

In addition, in 1980, female voter turnout exceeded that of men for the first time, and the gap has only grown since. Latinos made up 7 percent of the electorate in 2000, compared with 10 percent in 2012.

These demographic changes have occurred, said Kelly Dittmar, a professor of political science at Rutgers University in New Jersey, as �there is definite evidence that the Republican Party has moved to the right,� a change that might hold less appeal to women, younger people and minorities.

�In every election since 1980, we have seen a gender gap in voting, and when you break that down, women are more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate than their male counterparts� are, said Dittmar, who also is a scholar for the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

In 1972, the Republican platform spoke glowingly of social programs such as Head Start and food stamps, while the 2016 platform complained about the growth in food stamps to 45.8 million people, and asserted �this is the progressive pathology: keeping people dependent so that government can redistribute income.�

The 1976 Republican platform mentioned the word abortion five times, partly in the context that abortion �is one of the most difficult and controversial� issues �of our time.� By 2016, the word abortion appeared in the platform 35 times, emphasizing the party�s opposition to abortion rights.

The 1972 Republican platform boasted about supporting the Equal Rights Amendment and creating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, while the 2016 GOP platform advocated transforming the EPA into an independent bipartisan commission similar to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

�Coming out against the EPA is a sure way to turn off younger voters,� Pitney said.

The 2013 GOP report concluded: �Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents.�

And they're not exactly yearning for the Reagan years, the way it seems Republican presidential candidates do. No presidential candidate tried to resurrect Reagan�s image more than Kasich, prompting former Sen. Gordon Humphrey, R-New Hampshire, to label Ohio's governor as �Ronald Reagan�s son.�

Anyone younger than age 49 could never have voted for Reagan, prompting Bennett to say the former president is �not particularly relevant� to today�s voters.

�The problem is our party hasn�t appealed to anybody in quite a long time,� Bennett said. �We talk about pro-growth policies instead of increasing paychecks. We talk about limited government as opposed to improving your lives. Our talking points are horrid.�

jtorry@dispatch.com

@jacktorry1