What has always made things difficult are 'conservative' Democrats winning in 'red states'. Even if the democrats may be conservative on social issues, they still go to DC and elect people like Pelosi and Reid to leadership positions, and continue to support the socialist oriented wealth redistribution scheme.
They are not conservative Democrats winning in the red states, they may talk like that at home but they vote like liberals.
We need to use tactics from the Chambliss-Cleland race in GA and the Thune-Daschle race in order to "nationalize" these elections and make the people of these small red states consider the big picture when voting.