When he first became state Republican chairman, Nick Langworthy vowed to grow the party's enrollment in Democratic-dominated New York. After once again being shut out of statewide wins this November, Langworthy acknowledged expanding the party's membership has been tough. 

"We're down three million votes in enrollment," he said in an interview after the party's nominee for governor, Lee Zeldin, lost to Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul. "It's a very uphill climb to win a statewide office here." 

Republicans in New York are looking for a new leader after flipping a handful congressional seats, but failing to take the main prize in the race for governor. 

Langworthy next month will be sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives, vacating the chairmanship job. Already some Republicans want to replace him, and have pledged to help boost growth.

That includes Rockland GOP Chairman Lawrence Garvey, who announced this week his bid for the statewide job leading the party. 

"We absolutely have an opportunity to go out and convince these folks that our message works, that our candidates are quality candidates, that they are worthy of power, worthy of office," Garvey said. 

Zeldin ran the closest contest against Hochul since 1994, losing by 5 percentage points. Downballot, it was a different story. 

Republicans may have come up short statewide this year, but were successful in the New York City suburbs, an important political battleground. Garvey points to wins at the state and federal level. 

"Many of the things that make us so successful here in Rockland County can be scaled statewide," Garvey said. "It's really what the state party needs right now."

He can point to victories this past November, including Republican Mike Lawler unseating Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the party's fundraising chairman. 

But to make Republicans viable across New York, Garvey says the party has to appeal to a broader set of voters more reflective of the state. 

"We have to go out to non-traditional Republican groups -- we have to go out to the African-American and the Latino and the Asian communities," Garvey said. 

His goal: Increase enrollment by hundreds of thousands of voters to help close a large gap with Democrats. Republicans are now outnumbered by voters who have chosen to not enroll in a party. 

"One thing we have to do is go back to our basics and go back to what we inside baseball call the ground game," Garvey said. "That's having traditional voters hear our message and go out and vote for us."