I’m seeing the same problem here in SC, in the race against incumbent “Glenn Beck is a fearmonger” Inglis. Jim Lee, AF vet, tea party guy, grass roots no PAC money, only non-lawyer/academia person running, and some folks want to get behind the lawyer-bureaucrat who has the most money and name recognition instead of supporting the guy best for the job.
If the good guy is at 2% and the other guy you don’t like so much is at 37%, it’s kind of tough to get folks to change to the ‘best guy’. If it’s 15% vs 7%, that can be overcome rather quickly with hard work.
I have changed over the years. There are people I will no longer support based on their policies. If they’re nothing more than a backed over Democrat(R), why bother supporting them? They’ll just vote like a Democrat anyway.
If bad things are going to happen, let them happen under the Democrat, then hold them to account for it. Nothing bothers me more when it comes to politics than to see my own team doing the wrong thing. How do you go out and recruit new support for sound policy, when your own party has done exactly the opposite of what they should have been doing.
That’s a real confidence killer. It hurts you, because you don’t like it, and it kills your ability to get others to trust what you’re saying. “Oh yeah, who are you to talk about spending? Your party is as bad as the other!” And yes, sadly that is sometimes true.
Good luck to you.