Not weird actually, quite understandable. He could not have won as a Republican in either the House or Senate seats he ran for. He opted to be a DINO, running and winning as a Dem, but supporting a Conservative agenda. There’s at least one House legislator in my state (TN) that I know of who is about as Conservative as most of the GOP Conservatives, but because he is Black in a heavily Black Dem distrist, he remains a Democrat. Another center-right Black Dem House member from Knoxville (TN) back in the ‘80s switched to the GOP, managed to survive reelection in a low turnout election, but he fell in the following one.
I understand.