U.S. News & World Report: Strategist: Winning the House Stunted GOP's Digital Growth

There's a downside to everything and the GOP taking back the House in 2010 may have not helped the Republicans win the Internet.

"2010 was great for Republicans, [but] it was the worst thing to happen to our profession – it just reinforced bad habits," noted Michael Beach, a Republican digital strategist with the firm Targeted Victory. "All you had to be is standing after your primary and you won."

Beach has worked for the winning candidacies of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Republican Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico and the losing presidential campaign of Mitt Romney. He explained the last truly battleground national election happened in 2004 and since then (besides the "outlier" of 2012) elections have been in tidal waves.

"Which means we have people working in politics for nine years who never experienced a non-blowout," Beach said. "You could have done anything in '10 and won – it could have been leaflets."

The take-away from Beach's remarks, shared at Thursday's midterm preview sponsored by the Internet Association and Harvard University's Institute of Politics, was that this winning in waves has stymied innovation on the Republican side and could impact 2016.

However, National Republican Senatorial Committee's Tim Cameron had a more positive view. Cameron, speaking at the same event, argued that the GOP primary's wide open nature will be good for innovation.

"It's easily the most competitive primary since the invention of the Internet and it's really going to come down to who runs the best campaign," he said.

Getting out of what looks to be a crowded primary field will take digital chops whether it be in online fundraising, organizing volunteers via the Internet or messaging, Cameron argued.

"So I think in '16, we will have a pretty digitally committed candidate," he said.