Retired Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell entered Congress as a Democrat but left as a Republican. Part of the reason for his switch was the lack of consideration for moderate political voices, he said.

"The far left and the far right have one thing in common: They are totally intolerant," Campbell told The Politico. "I can still hear the voices: ‘We’re going to get you!'"

Campbell, a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana, was the only Native American in Congress for many years. He served as chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee during a time in which a record number of Indian bills were passed but his switch still resonates among Democratic leaders.

“One faction of our party drove a very good Democrat into the wilderness. How could we be so intolerant of differences to do something like that?” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) writes of Campbell's defection in his new book.

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The political lessons Harry Reid learned (The Politico 5/4)

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