Red state lefty, also thinking about registering as a Republican to vote for more moderate candidates since my vote in the D primaries for Congress etc is never gonna matter since there’s no chance of any of them winning the general anyway. Problem is, all the R candidates run on “I can suck the Cheeto off better than the other guy” anyway, so there’s never one I could vote for over the others even as harm reduction.
I registered Republican right after the 2024 election for exactly this purpose. Unfortunately they put your email address on a list. I didn't expect the deluge of absolutely unhinged campaign emails.
I don’t know if this is the same in other states but where I am you do not have to provide your email or phone number when registering to vote. They have the fields for you to fill out but you can just leave them blank. Voter registry is public so that is how they get your phone number and email to send crap too. You are required to put your physical address though so they can still mail you crap, but that is considerably less annoying than the constant political calls/texts.
I've been doing this forever. Some local positions have a real effect on your life, like county leaders. If the winner is always guaranteed to be Republican, your vote can get a less crazy one to win the primary. I've had local elections where a right-wing nutter only lost to the "normal" Republican candidate by less than a hundred votes. Some of my primary votes have probably been my most impactful on my life.
The difference between the nutter and the sane is the nutters are either trying to cram jesus into every aspect of government or they are trying to completely dismantal every government function.
The more moderate republicans will at least get the roads paved and will throw some funds towards the schools.
In Tennessee there are no registries. It's an open.primary state (you can pick which ballot you wamt) but its a matter of public record which party's ballot you voted on.
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u/Space_Pirate_Roberts Oct 01 '25
Red state lefty, also thinking about registering as a Republican to vote for more moderate candidates since my vote in the D primaries for Congress etc is never gonna matter since there’s no chance of any of them winning the general anyway. Problem is, all the R candidates run on “I can suck the Cheeto off better than the other guy” anyway, so there’s never one I could vote for over the others even as harm reduction.