I have never voted for Republican

[edhopper]

nor in my 4 decades of voting, have I seen a Republican I could vote for.
There are Republicans I have respected, and some who had a commendable view on a particular subject.
But there would be enough areas where they were wrong (as Republicans have always been about most things) that their Democratic opponent was always the better choice.

[brewens]

1. I only did under a few specific conditions. I voted for Republicans in the primary elections

for my House rep. Once a home town guy I hoped to have win. I went to school with his son. That was against Helen Chenoweth R-Idaho. I voted for the Democrat who had little chance in the general election. Another time I voted in their primary for the biggest crackpot, Bill Sali R-Idaho, thinking that if he was their candidate, we might be able to beat him. That one backfired. Sali won. Thankfully by a good margin so that everyone like me didn't have to feel responsible.

I also voted Republican for our yokel sheriff. The Democrat really needed to give it up. I also know all of his family. I knew the cop running against him as well. He wasn't all that much of a Republican anyway.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Voting for some of our DEMs IS just like voting (R).

Change You Can't Believe In

[quinnox]

3. sad, but true

sometimes it can be hard to tell a difference, especially on certain issues.

[edhopper]

5. That is true

but I bet in those contests the Republican is so much worse.

[sadbear]

23. Sometimes you gotta choose by who the candidate associates with.

Everything else being equal, associating with republicans is worse than associating with Democrats.

[etherealtruth]

4. I voted for a republican once ...

Sheriffs race in Spotsylvania County VA in the 1990s
The race was between the incumbent, TC Waddy, running as an independent against Ron Smith (R) ... I was convinced that Waddy was an extreme right wing nut-job and represented the "good old boys" network.

I held my nose and voted.

The one and only time I voted for the republican in my life (it was clearly so bad that almost 20 years later I remember the gory details)

Edit to add the Republican's name was actually Howard Smith

[lunatica]

6. I'm with you

Even when I don't like the Democrat, like Dianne Feinstein, I vote for her rather than a Republican.

When you vote for a Republican you vote for the party, not for an individual. At least Democrats are individuals.

I didn't used to despise Republicans but I do now.

[Sherman A1]

7. Well,

I did vote for Santorum in the meaningless Missouri GOP beauty pageant Primary this past year, just for fun. So I guess that would count as my having done so.

[edhopper]

8. You get a pass

for that one.
Crossing over to screw with them doesn't count.

[stultusporcos]

15. You must have felt so dirty

[Sherman A1]

20. Not at all

it was for pure entertainment.

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

25. There were A LOT of Democrats that did that...

Us Democrats salivated at the thought of President Obama being challenged by Rick Santorum in the general election!!

[Sherman A1]

33. Yes,

I was one of them. I knew early on that it would by Mittens, one only need watch the cycle of the GOP debates & media coverage to figure that out, but nonetheless voting for Rick was fun.

[Rstrstx]

24. He probably wanted to vomit in his mouth

:-|

[hfojvt]

9. I have

I voted for Obama twice

[mac56]

10. The worst Democrat is better than the best Republican.

People seem to lose sight of that fact.

[freshwest]

11. +1

[cali]

12. I have. Jim Jeffords. More liberal than 95% of dems.

[Faygo Kid]

13. Michigan used to have great Republicans.

Gerald Ford, George Romney, Bill Milliken, and more - all decent people with whom you could agree or disagree without thinking they were unprincipled.

Now? The Michigan Legislature is run by crooked tea party-butt kissers who will do anything to increase their power. Term limits are greatly responsible.

[Earth495]

14. I have.

I've voted for Chafee for governor, I voted for the de-facto Republican candidate for Lt. governor in RI, and I have voted for my Republican state rep.

I have never (and likely will never) vote for a Republican for a federal office.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Local judge race...last election to be specific

Moderate republican or darn crazee tea party type. Yup...I could not leave that empty for some sense of "purity."

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

17. What's in a name?

Honestly, I think NO nominees should have any party affiliation letters next to their name on the ballot. The people should be forced to think critically about the published stances of the nominee on social and economic issues. IMO, critical thinking should be a requirement for voting. In an ideal world, voters would armed with knowledge instead of memes & propaganda.

I'm convinced that ballot booths became a logic & reasoning free zone in the early 80's and we've yet to rectify it.

[trof]

18. I voted for one...then she told me she was a closet Democrat.

She was a retired high school English teacher who ran for a seat on the county commission.
If was her first venture into politics.
I liked everything she she said and stood for.

A year or so after she was elected she came to a Mardi Gras party we threw.
I told her "You're the reason I couldn't vote the straight Democratic ticket last time. I had to vote for you, and then the Democrats."
She said "I'm probably really a Democrat, but you know you can't elected to office in Baldwin County (AL) unless you run as a Republican."

That was true then, and it's true now.

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

26. There are many elected officials in PA that do that, but the other way around

Our Congressional candidate here in rural PA, Mark Critz, ran as a Democrat, but had a TV ad saying he was pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, and would "fight President Obama's EPA".

He went on to lose, and even with the right-wing positions, he was STILL better than the Tea Party backed Congressman we have now. Gerrymandering also played a HUGE roll in his narrow victory.

[Buzz Clik]

19. I have voted for many Republicans in local races.

When you know these people well, their party becomes less important than other attributes. And, I will not vote for an idiot under any circumstances, including a democrat.

[live love laugh]

21. I almost voted for Reagan

I didn't know how much propaganda had been utilized to create Reagan's welfare queen myth and I bought it. I still believed in the free press. Thank God I didn't. I quickly saw the true Reagan when he fired hoards of unionized air traffic controllers. I am eternally grateful for having avoided that mistake.

[Snarkoleptic]

22. I voted for Santorum in the R Primary last time around.

We have open primary elections in Illinois and I was doing my part to keep the pug primary a long, ugly, drawn-out affair.

There were 4 election judges at the table where you sign-in and get your ballot.
When asked if I wanted a Democratic or pug ballot, I said "The frothy sort of mischief I have in mind requires I use the Republican ballot."
One of the judges tried to hide her grin, but could tell she was a fellow liberal who was amused by the frothy (santorum) reference.

[Graybeard]

27. I did. John Lindsay for Mayor of NYC.

But I voted for him on the Liberal Party line on the ballot.

[kimbutgar]

28. From as long as I can remember my dad used to say "dirty stinking lousy republicans".

He's been gone 15 years now and I can still hear him say that. He would be going crazy now as to see what is going on. My grandfather voted for Eisenhower and my dad didn't talk to his father until Christmas. He always said republican's are the party of big business and the democratic party was for the people. It was my first political education and my dad was correct in his opinion.

[longship]

29. I voted for this Republican for US Senator twice.

Nancy Landon Kassebaum

One of the last progressive Republicans in the Senate.

I voted for her twice.

She retired from the Senate and married Howard Baker (R-TN) whose history is well known during the Senate-Watergate hearings when he asked the immortal question, "What did the president know, and when did he know it?"

Baker and Kassebaum were both Republicans. Nancy's father was Alf Landon, who ran against FDR in 1936. But Nancy was not just a moderate, she was more liberal than many of her Democratic opponents. It was an easy decision.

BTW, I never voted for Bob Dole and during those days, Democrats held both the Governor's house, but the state legislature in Kansas. And we held the governorship for many election cycles.

Now, it's gone all to hell. I live in MI now, my home state, and things are difficult here -- kind of like things in KS in the late 80's early 90's. I don't want MI to turn into KS as it is today. But that's what I fear.

[forestpath]

30. Neither have I...but given the way some of the Democrats I've voted for

have acted after they've been in office, sometimes it feels like I have.

[graham4anything]

31. Never voted repub.&voted in primaries 2x Jerry, 2x for Jesse Jackson & once Rev.Al Sharpton

in NYC in the 1960s and 1970s, there were 4 parties, and the votes then counted if on more than one line together.

The four parties were Democratic,republican,liberal, conservative, and all 4 were major parties then.But the divide was more then liberal/conservative trumping democratic/republican, and sometimes someone was on all four.

Aside from that all democratic and never voted republican at all.

Now it's straight democratic and I support ZERO third parties, except in the rare instances where the democratic person cannot win and will caucus with the democratic party.
However, have not run into that since I moved to NJ.

Would NEVER think of wasting my vote on any Presidential candidate except for the democratic one.
And when Corzine ran against Christie, I held my nose and voted for Corzine, knowing who the real Chris Chrstie is and he is no friend of mine, no matter how good he did in Sandy(and he did do well).

BTW, that all said, I have never been wrong in who I thought would win the Presidential election except in 1980, until the very last week I thought Jimmy Carter would win, and 2000.
Much as I wanted some of the others and voted for them, I knew they would not win on election day itself.
Wanting and voting and getting are different things.

Toughest decision was the 1980 primary. As I was one who always thought Teddy was the best of the 3 brothers, but I was a big fan of Jimmy Carter, and wished Teddy picked any other time to run (1972, 1976, 1984, 1988, 1992) but not 1980.
And wish that Teddy would have become the VP with Carter to unite the party and that Carter would have ditched Mondale.

I voted in the primaries twice for Rev. Jesse Jackson and for Rev. Al Sharpton in 2004.
2004 was an interesting race as Howard Dean already was out of it by then.
New Jersey's primary wasn't until June and it was already decided long time by then.
So my vote for Rev. Al Sharpton was basically symbolic.

Voted for Jerry Brown in 1976 primary and 1992 primary, and if not for the smear, Jerry could have won the nomination and the presidency IMHO.He almost did it. And his 1-800 campaign was the forerunner of Howard Dean's and Barack Obama's later campaigns.

[reverend_tim]

32. and never will vote for a republican

[TXDemoGal]

34. Right there with ya, brother!

Although I haven't been voting quite as long, I never voted for anything with an R after its name.