A cleveland.com reporter was on Nicole Wallace today

[summer_in_TX]

5. Depends on the state. In Texas you don't register for a party.

When you choose a ballot during the primary, election officials then mark you as an R or D. But the next time there's a primary, you come in without a party label.

BTW, when I was the Democratic club chair in my town 15 years or so ago, one of the Dems in my group had a vendetta against a conservative D state rep. She got a lot of people to vote against him in the primary. His primary opponent won but lost the general. And we've never been able to elect another Dem for state rep. For a long time no Dems would even run, because the stats they got said this area had too few Dems for them to win.

We were purple, but our "representative" is Tea Party, Trumpist red. We have never recovered from that misguided idea. I can see crossing over in a red county where no Dem runs, but it was a blow to us as a purple county.