Romney: GOP must learn from losses to win in future Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican Presidential nominee, delivers remarks during the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference, on March 15, 2013 in National Harbor, Maryland. WASHINGTON, March 16 (UPI) -- The GOP should learn from the mistakes of his campaign as they look to the future, presidential nominee Mitt Romney has told a gathering of conservatives. Addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, Romney said Republicans should learn from their election losses "to make sure that we take back the nation, take back the White House, get the Senate and put in place conservative principles," The Hill reported. Some Republicans have charged Romney lost the 2012 election to President Obama because he was not conservative enough. Speaking before Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said lessons could be learned from the country's 30 Republican governors, whom he called "some of our greatest success stories." Perry was among about a dozen Republican 2012 presidential aspirants. Romney said conservatives could learn from Republican governors such as Chris Christie of New Jersey and Bob McDonnell of Virginia. Neither of them was invited to the conference in part because of their support for expanding Medicare and a transportation tax, which are opposed by the party's fiscal conservatives. He added that governors of the "blue and purple states" would have to be included in discussions about the party's future because "those are the states we're going to have to win to get back the Senate and the White House."