I left the Democratic Party basically on issues of national security during the end of the Vietnam War.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I had quit the Congress to form the Progressive Democratic Front in 1978.
My entire family were Democrats all our lives. But because how furious I was about the previous administration, I turned in my card to become a Republican. I did not want to be known as a Democrat under that person's regime.
For a person of my sensibility, you're only left with the Democratic party.
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.
I started out as a Democrat.
I've been a Democrat all my life.
I haven't left the Republican Party. It left me.
I belong to the Democratic Party.
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.
I sometimes think that I didn't leave the Republican Party, as much as it left me.