One argument goes for states heavily one way or another is that you run as a member of the majority party in order to be able to be effective. It’s not exactly an invalid one. Used to be that the states didn’t have as strict an ideological enforcement of their members at that level (in some states, such as NH’s behemoth House, it would be hard to enforce that now, as you get some nutters in). Of course, when Jenkins first ran for the Senate in 2002, he just barely defeated his Republican opponent, so it wasn’t exactly an area thoroughly averse to the GOP (and Huntington elects GOP Mayors). It would’ve been curious to see where he and his opponent differed on the issues, if at all.
Yes I understand, which is why I’ll give this guy a fair shake.
But I find it dishonorable to be in the party you don’t really support because it’s in power, more understandable in decades past but it does more harm than good now. Rick Perry “but everyone was a democrat, I hads to get me elected!”.
But that’s preferable to the only other reason these kinds of politicians could be democrats, that they are as ignorant as the people who vote rat whilst calling themselves conservative.