The last time local Republicans campaigned for a presidential candidate, the Tea Party movement didn’t exist. Four years later, the founder of the local Tea Party is chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Party.

New chairman Rob Scott said earning the trust of longtime Republican activists — some of whom have been campaigning longer than the 30-year-old Scott has been alive — will be one of his challenges heading into election season.

“No matter what chairman comes in, they’re going to have to prove themselves,” said Scott, an attorney and Kettering city councilman. “(My age) is a challenge, because you want to be taken seriously ... But I actually think my age is a benefit for the party because Republicans are losing a lot of ground with the youth, as demonstrated by (President Barack) Obama’s election, where he really killed in the lower age brackets.”

But while times and leaders change, primary goals don’t, as Scott on Wednesday urged local Republicans of all ideologies to unite behind the party’s candidates for county, state and federal office, in what he called “the most critical election year of our lives.”

Montgomery County Democratic Party Chairman Mark Owens said he’s “not real concerned” with who local Republicans choose as their leader, but added that he called Scott to congratulate him.

“He has his job to try to elect Republicans, my job is to try to elect Democrats, and hopefully we can go about doing it in a civil manner,” Owens said.

When Scott addressed county Republican leaders on Wednesday after being chosen as chairman, he drew applause for saying “the family feud in our local party is now over.” Scott said he was referring to strain between some existing Republican leaders and new members that he had recruited to the party.

Outgoing county chairman Greg Gantt had talked in February about the need to avoid having rigid factions fighting each other within the Republican Party.

“You can have differences, you can have different agendas under the same umbrella, and still come to the meeting and at least vote,” Gantt said. “One side wins, one side doesn’t win, and you put it behind you and move on.”

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With November’s races already set, the type of candidates Scott will eventually attract for the Republicans and how conservative they are is not an issue for the party. But Scott gave a hint to his flexibility Wednesday when he talked about support for Mitt Romney, who has been criticized by some Republicans for being too liberal.

“It’s my opinion that if we polled this entire room, they would agree that Mitt Romney is better than President Obama, and that’s what I want to lead us to,” Scott said. “Whoever the Republican candidates are, I’m going to be behind them, whether they’re conservative, moderate, whatever, because in my opinion a moderate Republican is better than Obama.”

On the ballot in November will be nine of the 11 countywide offices, including two commission seats, plus all state and U.S. representatives, half of the state senate, one of Ohio’s two U.S. senators, and of course, the presidency.

The political landscape these two parties will fight over has changed rapidly and frequently during the past four years, both nationally and in Ohio.

Democrats surged forward in 2008, winning the presidency, huge majorities in Congress and control of the Ohio House of Representatives. Republicans surged back in 2010, winning the U.S. and Ohio houses, and sweeping Ohio’s top five state offices, led by Gov. John Kasich. But then in 2011, Ohioans pushed back against Kasich and the Republicans by rejecting their Senate Bill 5 labor reforms.

There’s debate over who has the momentum today. Scott said the Tea Party movement brought many new faces into political activism, many of whom have joined the Republican party.

“With this new group coming in, we’re going to have momentum, because there’s a lot of people in this room who really want to hit the ground running, who want to walk their neighborhoods, who want to knock on doors,” Scott said at Wednesday’s party meeting.

But Democrats have a foothold on most Montgomery County offices, and Owens said he’s not worried that Republicans’ statewide momentum from 2010 will filter down to the county level in November.

“I think that momentum has shifted,” Owens said. “When they took over on the state level, they overreached with Senate Bill 5 and other measures, and that kind of fired up our base.”

Scott said local Republicans hope to go door-to-door in every precinct in the county. Owens said the Obama and Sen. Sherrod Brown campaigns are already “on the ground” in Montgomery County.

Scott’s call to Republicans last week could have stood for both parties, as Ohio prepares for another six months as a political battleground.

“All of us are capable, all of us have a vested interest, all of us care enough to stand up,” he said. “And it is time for us to get to work.”