I’ve been a Republican since moving to Colorado in 1984. However, this election, I’m voting for a Democrat for president and I’m asking other Republicans to join me.

There’s a real horror for me when I listen to the hateful rhetoric from Donald Trump and a large number of his supporters – this need to divide us based on color or ethnicity or religion or gender, or to attack and insult someone because they have a differing opinion.

Those aren’t the principles our country was founded upon. I’m a Navy veteran and I’ve always considered myself a patriot, with a deep respect for our country and those who serve it. I fought for my country so that Americans can have the freedom to disagree.

I believe that one of the things that makes us great as a nation is our capacity for self-examination – to admit when we’re wrong and when perhaps we shouldn’t follow the herd with popular sentiment at the time – whether that sentiment is to segregate African-Americans or deny LGBT Americans basic rights.

Here in Colorado, we have a shining example of a courageous leader who never lost sight of those American values in our 29th governor, Ralph Carr. Carr embodied what it meant to place principles before popularity when he opposed the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. He ended up losing an election because of it but has gone down in history as a brave public servant.

I’m asking other Colorado Republicans to remember that legacy and join our group called Ralph Carr Republicans. It’s a group of Coloradans who cannot stay silent while the person at the top of the GOP ticket drags the principles of the Republican party through the mud by running a divisive campaign based on fear, hate, and racism.

I simply cannot vote for someone who disparages women, who calls for millions of people to be unfairly stigmatized based solely on their religion, or who uses the worst stereotypes about an entire ethnic population that represents millions of Americans, to pick just a few examples.

I need to be able to look myself in the mirror in the morning and know I’ve chosen who i think is the best candidate – and that’s why, despite being a Republican for the past 32 years, I’m voting for Hillary.

I’m asking fellow Republicans to do the same. Join us in choosing one of the most experienced, qualified candidates of our lifetimes over the celebrity reality TV star. If Trump can be baited with a tweet, can we really trust him with our nuclear codes? With our children’s security? Is this the type of leader we want our children modeling their behavior off of?

This is now the time for us to be like Gov. Carr, and to place our votes and our hearts in a place where country comes before party, and decency comes before complacency. For me that place, and my vote, will be with Hillary Clinton. I hope other Colorado Republicans will join me. The stakes are simply too high not to.