C Stryker @CStryker764 - Twitter Profile

I have to confess. I did not vote in the Florida primary on Tuesday. I couldn't. I am not a registered Republican. I haven't been since the 2024 primary. I am not here to relitigate the 2024 primary/election. I will say that I was disgusted by the primary process. All of it. I fiercely advocated for DeSantis during the primary. Ultimately, he lost. And for a while I was so angry. I swore at the time to sit out the 2024 election. Screw the GOP! I said. I am not voting! (I did, as did almost all of you who said you wouldnt) I was not angry that he lost (I was) but I was angrier that the Republican establishment as a whole treated DeSantis the way they did. I would have been fine if he lost in a fair fight. But I did not feel like it was one. Anyway, at the time, I decided that party affiliation is not important to me. And I changed to NPA. You want my vote? Earn it. Fast forward to the 2026 primary and I looked at the available options and felt nothing. For any of them. Granted, we got spoiled with Governor DeSantis' two terms and we always knew it would be nearly imposible to replace him with an equivalent. But I never expected our options would be THIS bad. At some point I was hoping Casey DeSantis would have jumped into the race, but if I am honest with myself and with reality, it would have been the worst possible decision for the DeSantis family and now that it's all said and done, I am happy for them that she stayed away. The options that we were presented with were either horrible OR had no realistic chance of winning. Bad campaigns, bad policy, straight up scam artists, etc. It's also why I remained silent for almost the entire primary. I simply didnt care for any of them. Now I'm seeing people with the "my candidate didn't win so I'm voting Democrat!! That'll teach em!" I understand the feeling. I do. Truly. I too, felt this way after the 2024 presidential primary. I swore to just sit out the election. (Never, though, did I consider voting for the Democrat. NEVER.) Which brings me to the upcoming 2026 general election. Our option is Byron Donalds, who I am not at all a fan of. Not even close. OR a Democrat. I hear people with "oh, but we have the Republican legislature! they will stop him!!" Umm... don't even get me started. If you are from Florida and follow/followed the Florida legislators over the last few years, you would know that they were and still are horrendous. If that's our failsafe, G-d help us. Then I hear, "oh, Jolly is a moderate!" Maybe he is. But he is still a Democrat. If the next Covid hit, or the next major issue, some of which we can't even think about, would you trust a Democrat in the driver's seat? I don't. I would never. So, like I did in 2024 for Trump, I am going to hold my nose and vote for Byron Donalds, faults and all. You are obviously free to do as you wish. But if you think that voting for the Democrat is going to "show them!!" you're not. You're not accomplishing anything other than helping the other side. "But Donalds is a drug dealer!! and likes data centers and this, that, and the other!!! How could you!!!" I know. I'm still voting for the Republican. Sorry.