James Carville calls for 'aggressive party-switching operation' to crack the solid South

Democratic political strategist James Carville said that now is the time for Democrats to launch an "aggressive party-switching operation" that could crack the solidly Republican South.

"I'm calling for a new Democratic Southern strategy," Carville said on the latest episode of his Politicon podcast. "Southern Democrats, particularly in places like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, probably Texas, should go after party switchers."

Carville said the latest polling numbers he had seen estimate that between 15 and 20 percent of Republicans oppose Trump, and about 95 percent of Democrats do.

Democrats should have an easy sales pitch because "20 percent of Republicans in the deep south are Republicans of convenience. They don't seem really into it that much," Carville said.

"You go find a highly competent DA ... pick out a guy or her or whatever, and say, 'Look, if you're in the Republican Party, you're never going to have a chance to get anything,'" Carville laid out. "'You'll be lucky if you get to run for state registrar of lands after you're sixty years old.'"

Once Democrats spell out the doom facing them in the GOP, Carville said that they should offer to build around these potential ex-Republicans.

He said Democrats should tell them, "'You come in now, we're going to give you the keys to the car. You're going to have a base vote of 45 percent. You're going to be able to rebuild it in your name. We're going to raise money for you."

Democrats can promise to "give you a lot more than Republicans can give you right now," Carville said. "We got to start doing what they did back in the '70s, '80s, and we need to start going after party switchers."

He's already hearing from "a lot of people" who "will tell me, even Republicans in Louisiana, 'I don't like this sh—, James. If I don't run as a Republican, I'm doomed,'" Carville said. "Well, start changing that part."