(AP) - As the GOP struggles to broaden its appeal, the head of the American Conservative Union declared Thursday that the Republican Party is not a home for everyone, as prominent voices in Republican politics gather with thousands of conservatives and tea party activists outside Washington. The Conservative Political Action Conference offers Republican leaders - past and potential presidential contenders among them - a high-profile stage to court their party's most passionate voters. The three-day gathering also shines a spotlight on deep divisions within the Republican Party as it tries to recover from a painful 2012 election season. I'm a firm believer that if the Republican Party is going to have some success, it's going to do so by being a conservative party and not a home for everybody. That's how you grow," Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union, told reporters Thursday morning as the conference began at Maryland's National Harbor, just south of Washington. He continued: "You grow your tent by convincing others, persuading others that yours is the way. And you build your tent by reaching out to the new demographics of America, not with a watered down version of who we ought to be," he said. The conference speaker list is a who's who of possible 2016 Republican presidential contenders: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, among them. But it also includes dozens of women, African Americans and Hispanics, Cardenas noted, suggesting that the GOP has become "too white, too old too and too male to win to win a national election, given the demographic realities of today." "Clearly there's a new generation of leadership in the movement on the rise," Cardenas said. The conservative conference comes at a critical time for the GOP. As Cardenas and others debate the direction of the party at the conference, the Republican National Committee is preparing to release a comprehensive plan next week - dubbed the Growth and Opportunity Project - to help improve the Republican brand. "The current disarray is actually pretty healthy," said former House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who is scheduled to speak on the final day of the conference. "Last year Chris Christie was invited," Cardenas said. This year, for better or for worse, we felt like he didn't deserve to be on the all-star selection for decisions he made. Hopefully next year he's back on the right track of being a conservative.