Because you always research who you vote for.
Here's the synopsis for a local Democrat for mostly irrelevant local position (think of it like, local village official dog-walker or some shit):
Former US military (infantry officer), no obvious Leftist endorsements, many years spent as a Judo athlete, private practice attorney, no significant political experience, adequate physiognomy, official Democrat Party information page made no appeals to Culture War topics, or even really any significant political topics at all. (I live in a pretty red area)
Here's the quote for the local Republican for the same position:
Accomplishments:
Promoted diversity training for [government strata] employees
He's a multi-year incumbent. Has been either an attorney or a politician for the past 30 years. Poor physiognomy.
Just because there is an R in their name doesn't mean they aren't supporting DIE in the government.
CLEAR. THEM. OUT.
The questions I'd want an answer to: when & why did this person join the Democrat party?
Even if there is nothing obvious on this person's web bios, the Democrat machine has been full steam ahead in pushing DIE (just look at who they appoint in senior positions across various portfolios), and I would question how insulated even low level politicians can be from that.
If the local republican is a dud, were there any independent candidates on the ballot?
Unfortunately his specific history was unclear.
This is why I liked researching on the Party's page. It's meant to be a big rallying point for other Dems, so when they talk openly, they say the stupid shit that tells me their programming. Unlike nearly all of the others, he didn't have any of that.
Any Dem with endorsements from "the coalition of women voters" or "Our Revolution" is right out the door. The CoW is basically a big front to get the Dems to re-district in their own favor.
One bio said that the candidate had personally mailed out 16,000 flyers in 2016 to support the party, I didn't pick her either.
Because of how NPC programming works, you just have to wait for them to make the right virtue signal.
Not present. There is effectively no significant libertarian, green, progressive, or socialist opposition. It's unfortunately a very boomer-red region. This means that sometimes you find a based republican, but most of the time you're looking at someone who is concerned about the dangerous effects of video-games.