I prefer conservative candidates in my voting area, period. Should they come from the Republican party, great!
If not, then I will vote for them regardless of party. Democrat, Libertarian, Martian Invasion party, whatever.
Your path would sacrifice my vote and if successful, place a candidate into office that does not support my ideals. Should that happen more than twice, you lose a voter for good.
Not the best strategy if you want the Republican party to be viewed as conservative.
If you just want it in power, regardless of idealogy, then perhaps it might work. I’d hazard a guess not, considering that your particular view on the matter was tested in 2006 and 2008, with resounding results.
“Your path would sacrifice my vote and if successful, place a candidate into office that does not support my ideals. “
My “path” merely requires us to deal with people on our side with tolerance and charity, and with a willingness to bargain as we all should in a democratic polity. If you have the option personally to vote for a conservative who meets your desires in your district who also has a good chance to win, then that is your good fortune. But many of the rest of us don’t, and we have to make the best of it.
On a national level we also have to make the best of it.
I also suggest that we should see our votes not as some privelege to be withheld for light reasons, such as a passing disappointment, but as a duty owed to each other.
If you cannot vote for someone to establish your political desiderata, then you MUST, as a duty, vote for the sake of the rest of us, to keep the situation from getting worse.