Washington (CNN) - In the wake of this week's GOP victory in a much watched special congressional election, a senior White House official acknowledged the need to rev up voter turnout.
The comments were part of a Thursday post-game analysis following Tuesday's Democratic loss in a special election to fill a vacant seat in Florida's 13th Congressional district.
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National Republicans framed the election as a referendum on Obamacare, and some pundits called the contest a possible test of how President Barack Obama's policies and approval rating could resonate heading into November's midterm elections.
Despite all the scrutiny and importance heaped on the race, and the massive infusion of outside money, Democratic voters didn't come out in impressive numbers, while many Republicans were motivated by opposition to the Affordable Care Act. That resulted in Republican candidate David Jolly narrowly edging out Democrat Alex Sink. Jolly will now fill out the final nine and a half months of the term of his former boss, longtime Republican Rep. Bill Young, who died in October.
When asked exactly how the President will be "deployed" around the nation ahead of the midterms, administration officials said fundraising and turnout will be key, and described Obama as one of the greatest turnout-motivating politicians they've ever seen.
There's traditionally a large drop-off in voter participation during midterm election cycles, which generally favors the GOP over Democrats. Still, White House officials said they are 100% confident that had the Florida special election happened this November, Sink would have won.
The administration's other two main concerns: Getting the message out that keeping the Senate is critical, thereby, again, motivating voters; and beating what they called the hard lesson learned in 2010: that Republicans have been better at getting resources to local elections.
Those cannot be ignored, officials said, as public policy ends up being deeply affected by who is governor of a state versus who controls the legislature. The officials added that Democrats need to spread more wealth and time out beyond the biggest races.
The focus, of course, will be firmly on economic issues. The officials said the administration is planning a number of executive actions in coming weeks, similar to Thursday's Presidential order to the Department of Labor to get started on expanding overtime protection to far more salaried workers in America.
The officials said the message will remain that the President and Democrats want to strengthen the middle class, while Republicans believe in prosperity for a few in the hopes that it will trickle down.
They will ask of political opponents, on a fundamental level, things like: do you believe in a minimum wage, or not? Should there be one? And if so, then why would it not keep up with inflation?
On these matters tied to the state of the economy going forward, administration officials said Republican voters are split, while Democrats are unified. They said Democrats just need to do something about it, and vote.