WASHINGTON (AP) — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says President Barack Obama and Democrats are "eight to 10 years ahead" of the Republican Party in understanding the rapidly changing face of the American electorate.

Gingrich tells "CBS This Morning" that GOP strategists have failed to respond effectively to the new demographic landscape.

Gingrich, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination last year, says poor strategy and questionable consulting last year cost the Republicans nine U.S. Senate seats that "we should have won."

He says, "You can't just be an opposition party. You have to be a party that has a better alternative."

Gingrich says Democrats have more readily adapted to a voting public that is "in many ways younger, more Latino, more African-American, than Republican strategists are capable of dealing with."