Former Nevada Lt. Gov. Sue Wagner said Tuesday that she recently left the Republican party.

“It’s grown so conservative and tea-party orientated and I just can’t buy into that,” Wagner told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “I’ve left the Republican Party and it’s left me, at the same time.”

Wagner reflected on a party that has changed over the past few years.

“I did it as a symbol, I guess, that I do not like the Republican Party and what they stand for today,” Wagner said. “I’ve been a Republican all my life. My dad was active (in the GOP) in the state of Maine where I was born. It was more of a moderate, liberal Republican Party.”

Wagner, who served from 1991 to 1995 as the first female lieutenant governor in Nevada, supports abortion rights. In 2010, she would not endorse Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle because of her “extreme” views on abortion.

Image via Reno Journal-Gazette videos