an interesting test. >> host: ed morrissey's new book is called going red, howy . conservatives team within.on for thistv

. >> host: ed morrissey, in your new book, "going red," who are the two million voters that you talkabout in this book? >> guest: the two million voters refer to voters in seven key counties in seven key swing states that republicans won in 2004 but lost in 2008 and 2012. so we're looking at bellwether counties in places like florida, virginia, ohio, north carolina, new hampshire, colorado and wisconsin. wisconsin's actually kind of an interesting case, because republicans haven't9 actually quite won wisconsin yet. but because of some of the changes that have occurred over the last few years in wisconsin, i think they have a pretty good understood the there. -- opportunity there. the idea is to find out who those voters are because the key thierry in this book is the reason why republicans win local and state elections but not presidential is because they have lost -- the national level has lost touch with who the voters are on the local voters. >> host: who are some of the voters, in your view, that the republicans have lost, and how can they get them back? >> guest: hamilton county

. >> ed morrissey, in your new book going right, who are the 2 million voters you talk about?>> voters in seven key counties, seven key swing states that republicans won in 2004. so we are looking not bellwether counties and places like florida, virginia, otto, north carolina, new hampshire, colorado and wisconsin. republicans haven't quite won wisconsin yet. because of the changes that occurred the last few years, a pretty good opportunity is there. the idea is to find out who they are because the key theory in the book is the reason why republicans when elections in those counties that can't won presidential elections is because the national level has lost touch with who the voters are the local level. >> let's go to hamilton county, ohio. who are some of the voters that republicans have lost and how can they get them back? >> hamilton county is an interesting case because the only net population loss over the last few decades. people coming in from other parts of the country, carrying their native political elections with them. hamilton county is the one where people have l

. >> host: ed morrissey, what is your day job? >> guest: i work at hotair.com, i'm senior editor. i do a, i do a twice-a-week podcast on politics and culture and also write columns for the fiscal times and for "the week." >> host: in this election season, have any of the candidates done what you're suggesting here in "going red"? >> guest: you know, i think if you take a look at the primary races so far, i think ted cruz has actually done a very good job of getting on the ground, in iowa especially, but also in texas. he knows texas very well, it's his home state. apparently, oklahoma as well. we're hearing a lot of things about ted cruz's organization that tend to make me think he's on the right track in terms of what we're talking about here. with the exception of iowa which is kind of a purple state, oklahoma and is pretty easy. these are very red states. we don't necessarily know how he's pulling in swing voters. and, again, it's a fractured primary too. and you're only working within the republican party primary, so it's not a great analog necessarily. but the organizational

. >> host: ed morrissey's new book is called going red, howy . conservatives team within.on for this is tv on c-span2. [applause] >> dance, folks. thanks for being here. a this is really an exciting discussion that kim is going to lead today. he and i started talking about this a couple years ago and it is something i've been veryti interested in for a long time am i to see the growing intoleranc and intimidation from the left. the very first book i wrote is called why we whisper in the subtitle is losing our right to say it's wrong. it's all about the growing intimidation of anyone who wanted to take a position that was based on any kind of traditional values, and a judeo-christian reality and how the left carries out that intimidation in a way that makes everyone whisper.g the title of that book came from my experience has been something in my senate campaign for i was just pummeled in the media all over the place. there was no public support for me. everywhere i went, people would come up after the meeting and get real close since they keep fi