Was it an open primary?
You can declare yourself to be any party and vote in that party's primary election.
You switch parties to screw an incumbent you hate.
In Missouri about twenty years ago a lot of Republicans switched to Democrat to vote against governor Bob Holden.
That brilliant move gave us governor Claire McCaskill.
The rest is history.
This article is the usual garbage. Ohio has an open primary; you can pick whichever party ballot you want. This means that the RINO may win the R Senate nomination and I would bet at least half of the Haley voters were Democrats who wouldn’t even vote for her should she get the nomination. No wonder they wouldn’t vote for Trump; plus the best polls are showing Trump beating Biden by 8-11 points in Ohio which he won twice by nine points.
Yes, I think it was open.