Sitting around a conference table in the GOP's Capitol Hill headquarters yesterday with a group of political reporters, Texas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, broke down his organization's strategy for winning back control of Congress. After the loss of more than 50 House seats in two election cycles, the re-energized NRCC is pushing challengers and incumbents to earn its support.

The retooled "Young Guns" program for well-organized GOP challengers in Democratic districts is broken down to a three-part process where goals such as volunteer recruitment, fundraising, and a set number of door knocks must be met to enter the program and then advance.

"We want every single candidate to be in [the program], even when there's a competitive primary," Sessions said. "We believe that if you follow the three steps, you will find yourself maybe the winner of the primary -- though we don't guarantee that."

Thirteen challengers are already in the Young Guns program, including former Reps. Steve Pearce in New Mexico and Steve Chabot in Ohio, and two have already been endorsed -- Adam Kinzinger in Illinois's 11th District and Dennis Ross in Florida's 12th District. Democrats picked up the Illinois seat last year, and GOP Rep. Adam Putnam is retiring from the Florida district, which John McCain barely won in 2008.

Sessions said there would be at least twice as many challengers needed to defeat 40 Democratic incumbents for control of the House, though he refused to predict how many the GOP would pick up this year. The overarching theme will be "the effectiveness of the economy" and the way Democrats have conducted their aggressive agenda.

"We are going to work the angle that it is Democratic members who support Nancy Pelosi and empower her to do business the way she is," he said.