The history of [Mariano] Rivera is pretty unbelievable. And even if you're not a Yankee or a baseball fan, you have to appreciate the tradition. He gets respect from Boston fans and Phillies fans, and I love tradition.

We need to tap into new issues. There's a way to resurrect the sound policies of our party, but also to look toward new issues - kitchen-table issues like the rising cost of education. I think that's a winning issue for Republicans.

George Washington said, "All I am, I owe to my mother." That's so true. My mom pushed me to get in politics. She pushed me to learn a bunch of languages. She pushed me and inspired me. She is the reason why I'm in politics.

Conservatives need to figure out a way to motivate by reason and persuade through emotion. Meaning that when they talk about our issues, it can't come from a selfish place - "Give me a tax cut. Where's my tax cut." We have to get back to that "shining city on the hill."

Play small ball. Get back to basics. I would say that you need to be a conservative, but you need to maintain your independent streak.

I'm OK with guns in schools, if it's a security, trained security personnel. But every teacher having a gun, I don't know if I can jump up and down on that one and fully get behind it.

We're having this conflict in Syria is because [Vladimir] Putin wants to take Iranian oil and channel that oil up to Europe.