We Republicans keep letting the Dems eat our lunch. Yes, they generally have demographics on their side but they are also better at playing the election game.
One thing that they do that we don’t do is that they vote in our primaries. Virginia law says that any registered voter can vote in any primary, but only one. When we have a primary and they don’t, I’ve seen some of them show up at the polling location that I work at. Undoubtedly they are voting for the candidates they feel would be easiest to beat.
I vote in the Democrat primaries but I’ve been unsuccessful in getting other Republicans to follow in my footsteps. In the latest primary, they had contests for offices for which we won’t have a Republican running in November. In other words, whoever won the primary is now “in”. As a result, we will have some far left politicians serving in Richmond and serving locally. Even in cases where we have a Republican challenger for an office, our votes can keep the extreme loonies off the November ballot. Consider this a form of insurance.
So, why aren’t many Republicans voting in Dem primaries? A good part of the reason is an urban legend. Republicans tell me that if one votes in a Dem primary, they will be warned that next time they’ll be thrown out of the party. This didn’t make sense to me so I checked local and state bylaws. What the bylaws do say is that we can’t do anything to aid another Party. Voting in an election where Dems are running against each other certainly isn’t aiding them.
Another objection is that you may be listed as a Soft Republican instead of a Hard Republican in walkbooks. So what? I’m listed as a Soft Republican and it hasn’t hurt me in any way.
Picture more AOCs in offices all over. We can stop this from happening by voting for the sanest candidate in each of their offices. And, we should avoid using primaries to pick our candidates so Republicans get to choose them, not Dems.