However, with Europe, immigration and an improving economy in the spotlight, the party will now be wondering whether it faces an even stiffer task in persuading an uncertain country to entrust it again with the levers of power.
One day after the GOP suffered a crushing presidential defeat that spotlighted the party's unpopularity with Latino voters, Fox News star Sean Hannity announced that his position on undocumented immigrants had "evolved" and that he now supports a pathway to citizenship.
That put the spotlight on the party's platform on abortion, which boldly commits the party to backing a constitutional amendment granting full rights to an unborn child, outlawing abortion in all circumstances.
Suddenly there was a spotlight on the party's shortcomings.
If a guest steals the spotlight at a party — as Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine did at the M-Tel Masters tournament last weekend — do his hosts invite him back?
In the week and a half that he has been campaigning on his own, Mr. Edwards has run a purposely low-key campaign, focusing on fund-raisers and reserving the spotlight for the party's presumptive presidential nominee, John Kerry.
If a runoff occurs, a second round pitting Mr Emanuel against Mr Garcia could boost the hopes of this left-wing faction and cast a national spotlight on the party's ideological split - a development that would be wholly unwelcome in the eyes of those Democrats who are more interested in presenting themselves as united going into next year's general election.
Its dominant victory in the recent European parliamentary elections has put a spotlight on the party's ultra-conservative policies and history of anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Education advocates on Wednesday will press Republicans on the details of their plans to improve K-12 education at an event that is likely to put the spotlight on the party's raucous fight over the national standards known as the Common Core.
When Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo)., the GOP nominee for a U.S. Senate seat, made boneheaded comments about "legitimate rape" on Sunday, that shined a spotlight on the party's long-held anti-abortion position, which does not allow exceptions in cases of rape or incest.
