Politics is in my blood.
As son of a Republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is automatically expected by many that I am a Republican. For 50 years, through the election of 2000, I was.
I come from a long line of Democrats.
I think my identity as a 'conservative' is entirely inherited. People see the name Buckley, and they think 'conservative.'
My father and my mother and my sister and I have always voted Republican, always.
My parents were political, so it's definitely in my bones. Wherever I am, I always seem to get involved with politics. I think, once it's in your bloodstream, it's always there. I love it.
I come from a part of the world - raised in a part of the world where you're born a Democrat, baptized a Democrat.
It's my name on the ballot, and it's me running this race. I'm the one doing this. Not my father and not my grandfather and not my great-uncle and not President Kennedy.
