I sometimes think that I didn't leave the Republican Party, as much as it left me.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I haven't left the Republican Party. It left me.
Half a century ago, Ronald Reagan, the man whose relentless optimism inspired me to enter politics, famously said that he didn't leave the Democratic Party; the party left him. I can certainly relate. I didn't leave the Republican Party; it left me.
For a person of my sensibility, you're only left with the Democratic party.
When I retired out of the military, I registered myself as a Republican because my views and perspectives were more in line with that party.
I left the Democratic Party basically on issues of national security during the end of the Vietnam War.
I am still a Republican. I have not changed that.
The Democratic Party went far to the left, I think, and left some of us stranded on the beach, so we went to the Republican Party.
I have been a Republican since 1966.
I joined a Republican Party that was used to losing, used to being browbeaten by the Democrats. I represent a totally different style.
I didn't want to engage in a campaign where I was defending myself on those issues at every turn, so I just decided that I'd switch and run as a Republican.