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So, a lot of my supporters back home are members of the Tea Party.

My political views have since I was a kid someway or another reflected the concerns of Tea Party movement.

I always start my discussions with the Tea Party groups with telling them, 'you know I have only three words for you: God. Bless. You.' Because the Tea Party's bringing the Republican party back to a more conservative base.

I like to think of myself as my own guy. I don't want to be labeled as a Tea Party guy, but I'm not necessarily against their agenda.

As in nature, politics abhors a vacuum. Without a strong voice for more moderate leadership, the Tea Party is filling that vacuum.

Politics is not a tea party. When it is time to act, you have to move fast and decisively.

The Tea Party movement went off on a more extreme agenda that I did not support at all, and was very frustrated by it, to the point that not only did I change parties, I decided to do something about it and run for Congress.

I think people are confused about what the Tea Party is. I mean, they were a broad cross-section of Americans who came together concerned about our debt and our spending. And they're interested in constitutional, limited government. And so they're not one group of people. They're thousands of small groups all over the country.

The Tea Party is simply a loose description of local activism driven by Americans who want smaller government and more self-reliance. That sounds like what the Founding Fathers had in mind, does it not?