I try to select the candidate who comes closest to my views, then I go work hard for that candidate

I see no point in playing silly bullshit games with elections

so we should never vote for one for any reason. The way modern campaigns are run, so much money can be poured into a dumb asses campaign that they will simply overwhelm a good candidate with bullshit.

Vote for the best choice in a primary.

Let the dumb asses take care of getting nominated on their own.

You need to let each party pick the candidate they feel best represents the party, any attempt to interfere with the primaries to produce a candidate for some other reason is a perversion of the process and an attempt to take away someone's vote. This is certainly true when some billionaire pumps money into someone's campaign to run attack ads, but it's also true when someone crosses parties just to vote for a candidate they have no intention of voting for in the general election.