I didn't leave the Republican Party. It left me.

I don't want a lot of bureaucracy... I want to run state government the same way we run a campaign - efficient, effective and victorious.

I was a Republican and I saw the activists and what they were doing, it was intolerable to me.

I'm not a scientist either, but I can use my brain, and I can talk to one.

I'm here tonight, not as a Republican, not as a Democrat, but as an optimistic American who understands that we must come together behind the one man who can lead the way forward in these challenging times: my president, our president, Barack Obama!

As a former lifelong Republican, it pains me to tell you that today's Republicans - and their standard-bearers, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan - just aren't up to the task. They're beholden to 'my way or the highway' bullies, indebted to billionaires who bankroll ads and allergic to the very idea of compromise.

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.