I remember Karl Rove literally laughing about the fact that Romney couldn’t win any primary races in the south. He said they will vote for him when there are no other choices.
That’s why it’s important to teach the GOP that they can’t count on votes in the general election when they run libs like HW Bush, Dole, McCain ,and Romney.
Of course, you and I both know that it's a lesson they'll never learn. However, that may be a wrong assumption since I suspect that the GOPe does know that this is not a winning strategy but doesn't care because they're not interested in winning, just collecting their salaries and perks.