In two special elections in 2008, one in Mississippi and the other in Louisiana, Democrats ran conservative candidates in rural areas and beat their Republican opponents.  In Louisiana you would have been hard pressed to identify the political affiliation of the Democrat candidate if you didn't know it already:

Cazayoux portrayed himself as a culturally conservative candidate in the Republican-minded district, citing his opposition to abortion rights and gun control measures and tough talk on border security.

These victories, combined with the loss of former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert's congressional seat in Illinois, were then held up by the Democrats as examples of Republican political irrelevance and took precious momentum away from the GOP leading into the 2008 election.

Meanwhile, Republicans continue to ignore congressional seats in cities across the country and let Democrats run unopposed.  Here in Michigan Detroit is ignored and written off by Republicans.  In 2006 Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick ran unopposed in the 13th District and in 2008 Rep. John Conyers ran unopposed in the 14th Congressional District.  These two congressional districts cover Detroit and several other cities in the area.  Unfortunately this is not a rare occurrence.  It gets worse when you look at the state level races.  When you have fifteen Democrats running against each other in a primary and zero Republicans something is wrong folks.

I have heard all of the excuses against running Republican candidates in these areas.  "We can't waste precious resources on these races that we will lose anyway!" or "We just can't find anyone to run!"  Give me a break.  If we can't find candidates then the district Chairmen need to be fired and replaced. Period. That is their main mission.  If resources are tight then recruit some young people to work these campaigns and see what happens.  Turn them loose and you will be surprised at what they can do.  A lack of financial resources can unleash some serious creativity within a College Republican.

We can no longer afford to write off these seats.  I have heard many people talk about the Republican Party as being racist toward African Americans.  That is obviously not the case, but what message do we send to that community when we ignore them election after election?  If we don't go in the city the vicious stereotypes and caricatures of Republicans will go unchallenged.  If you don't know any Republicans you will believe what you hear.  It is much harder to demonize people if they are your friends and acquaintances.  There are many Black Republicans that live undercover in urban areas.  If we gave them the support they needed they would be more vocal and visible.  

Democrats are not afraid to come into rural and suburban America.  We shouldn't be afraid to come to the city.  The GOP continues to ignore urban areas at its own peril.  If Republicans keep walking down this path we will be relegated to a permanent minority party.