WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans who shrug off the party's sagging reputation are a growing frustration to GOP activists hoping to win presidential elections.

Freshman Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida can help explain the dilemma.

Yoho is among those House Republicans who focus intensely on small, conservative slices of voters. He pays much less attention to national campaigns.

Yoho owes his House seat to 21,717 north-central Florida voters who helped him defeat 12-term incumbent Cliff Stearns last year. That's about one-six thousandth of the Americans who voted in the last presidential election.

That sliver of the electorate is all-important to Yoho. He says his constituents generally backed his decision to oppose the bill that reopened government and averted a U.S. default. The national GOP's approval rating fell during the fight over the shutdown.

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