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Primary voters don't really think beyond the primaries.

That's how we got De Santis. 2018 was a blue wave year. Florida Dems chose a progressive Black mayor over the more centrist daughter of a former governor...

To me, that implies Florida Democrats just wanted to make a statement, not win an election. Of course, I’m a swing voter who thinks it’s stupid not to nominate someone who has a decent chance of winning in the general. I’m used to the Republicans doing this, making a statement, not so much with the Democrats. That may be changing a progressive become a larger segment of the Democratic party ousting more of the moderates. I don’t think the blue dog democrats still exist. If so, there may be a handful.

Perhaps we need a new way of choosing candidates. Maybe Alaska has something going for them that the rest of the states should look at. I always been a fan of the jungle primary, we use that in Georgia for special elections, then a runoff between the top two finishers if no one receives 50% plus one vote.

The 2018 Florida Governor results do not support your thinking.

Anti-Trump progressives were on a roll...

It was a blue wave election where Dems could do no wrong.

Gillum was already under investigation for corruption.

Bob Graham's daughter woulda beat DeSantis' ass.

I wasn't really much aware of the primaries because I'm not allowed to vote in them.

I remember 2018, that was a blue wave election where the Democrats gained 44 house seats. A huge anti-Trump vote that year. Democratic candidates received 53.4% of the vote vs. 44.8% for the Republicans.

That’s what great about Georgia. We only register to vote. No party registration. So we can choose which primaries to vote in. The only stipulation is if there’s a runoff, we must vote in the runoff of the party we originally voted in their primary. No crossing over to vote in the other party’s primary runoff.

I’ve flipped back and forth between Democratic and Republican primaries so many times over the years, that neither party knows what to think of me. I get campaign propaganda mail from both parties. A whole lot of it. I just rip them up and throw them in the trash. Both parties are wasting a lot of mail expense on me. Outside of the Braves games, I don’t watch live TV either. So, all the money the two major parties spend on negative TV propaganda political ads is also wasted on me. I stream the shows and channels I watch. I get the History Vault, Discovery plus, Amazon Prime and the like. No commercials, no propaganda. YouTube is also nice for movies and shows with no commercials. I watch my TV, shows on my laptop with an extra big monitor. I can’t remember when I last turned on our TV.

If Democratic primary voters had given it much thought they woulda passed over the black dude.

We coulda been a blue state, Instead, we got De Santis. And we owe this to overzealous primary voters who would rather make a statement than win an elecction.

You seen some of that in 2020 also. There were 3 House incumbent pro-life Democrats that were defeated in their democratic primaries by pro-choice democrats in swing or slightly red districts. All 3 pro-choice Democratic candidates lost in the general. I’m positive had the Democrats stuck with those 3 pro-life incumbent democrats, they would have won. Those 3 lost seats were part of the 13 seats the Republican Party gained in 2020.

If the goal is winning elections, general elections that is. The democrats shot themselves in the foot in order to make a statement. Instead of having a 225-210 majority, the democrats have a 222-213 majority. Instead of the Republicans needing a net gain of 5 seats to retake control of the house, the GOP would have needed 8. Those three lost seats in order to make a statement may cost the Democrats control of the house.

Being a non-partisan, I never saw the need to make a statement. I focused on having the candidates with the best chances of winning in November. Even if those candidates are Manchin’s and Sinema’s. Every democrat elected counts as to who controls what. Without Manchin and Sinema, the senate would be controlled by Republicans.

The election reform bill which overhauls the arcane 1800s-era statute known as the Electoral Count Act that governs, along with the U.S. Constitution, how states and Congress certify electors and declare presidential election winners has passed the house. You also have at least 10 Republicans senators in favor of the senate version.

From the article: While the House bill is more expansive than the Senate version, the two bills cover similar ground and members in both chambers are optimistic that they can work out the differences. And despite the mostly party-line vote in the House, supporters are encouraged by the bipartisan effort in the Senate.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/house-vote-election-law-overhaul-040352527.html

This bill could be signed into law prior to the midterms if all goes right.

Tiny steps, decades late. It's how we roll.

Primaries are partisan affairs carried out by partisans to forward the goals of the party.

As a non-partisan, I kind of take exception to the whole affair. It's Locke vs Hobbes, Hamilton vs Jefferson down through the ages...

Why the Polls May Be Feeding Liberals Another Blue Mirage (TIME)
A good read. Also, from Pew: What 2020’s Election Poll Errors Tell Us About the Accuracy of Issue Polling.

I am cautiously optimistic.