I am a broken record on this, and I know I am certainly in the minority here with this view, but I think that the Republican voter base (not to be confused with the group of GOP primary voters commonly referred to as "the GOP base") is remarkably more strategic and pragmatic than many Democrats and talking heads in the media realize or are willing to admit. If a candidate is seen as furthering their goals (i.e., halting the advance of social liberalism and the "socialization" of American capitalism), they will look past just about anything. Obviously, this doesn't describe all Republicans, and there are indeed those that fit the caricature of a "Trumper" to a T, but they represent a non-insignificant proportion of those who remained loyal to Trump, and they will have no problem supporting either A) a devout Evangelical who talks like Ted Cruz or B) someone who speaks of religion as infrequently as Donald Trump in 2024 if they see that person as the most likely to stop four years of Kamala Harris.
Then why did they vote for Trump over someone who was seen as having a better chance at beating Hillary?
