My parents were workers. My mom, especially in my high school years, was a stock clerk at Kmart... My dad was a bartender that worked banquets.

Voters decided otherwise [on me as a president candidate] and I will focus on my work here in the Senate because I have nine months left. And after that, later, as a private citizen, I will continue looking for a way to contribute to the cause of political conservatism to help our state and our country and the issues that interest me. But I really don't want to be nor do I think that I will be invited to be any candidate's vice president.

I think there's a growing amount of confusion about what conservatism is. And it is time for us to understand that conservatism is not built on personalities. Conservatism is not simply built on how angry you might seem from time to time. Conservatism is built on a set of principles and ideas that our nation desperately needs.

Around the world, America's influence has declined while this president [Barack Obama] has destroyed our military, our allies no longer trust us, and our adversaries no longer respect us.

We have enshrined in our founding documents and promoted the fundamental truth, all around the world, that the rights of all men, women and children ,not simply Americans come from God.‎

The No. 1 issue in the Hispanic American community is 'How do I leave my children better off than myself?

What will solve our problems is a specific set of ideas built on bedrock principles that made America the greatest nation to begin with and applying those principles to the unique challenges of this new century. And those principles are not complicated. It begins with a notion that this nation was founded on a powerful spiritual principle, that our rights do not come from government. Our rights do not come from our laws. Our rights do not come from our leaders. Our rights come from God.