I totally agree and I doubt he’s lying (maybe about being a Republican) to win.
Our local paper recently endorsed my true conservative congressman. Its a liberal paper but their reasoning was sound. They simply say that my congressman has has been honest from day one. They said they couldn’t find anything in his legislative record that is out of step with the past campaign promises he’s made.
The fact that the democrat challenger is a placeholder doesn’t hurt. We’re looking at a good 60/40 election.