When I was very young, and involved as a volunteer for the bad guys (forgive me), one of the things I did was organize voters in certain precincts in an open primary state to vote Republican and vote for the worst of the electable candidates on the slate, not so much to ensure that the dummy would win the primary, but to try to knock off the best candidate. We called the practice “plinking,” but I am not sure if that terminology is still current.
That is how we kept Jesse Helms (R-NC) in office so long. Until a few years ago, only D’s voted in D primaries, R’s in R primaries and independents could not vote. We registered Democrat, voted for their most beat-able candidate, then voted for Jesse in the general election. That is why the MSM calls us “Jessecrats”.