...so anyone can vote in them (although IIRC, you can only vote in one, not both Dem and GOP). I had this thought of being an independent until 2008, when I accepted I was never going to vote for a Republican. For anything. LOL. So I ultimately chose to register as a Dem in North Carolina to vote for Obama (although that one was a tough one for me, at one point I was going to vote for Hillary. But I was finishing my degree and I saw how energized my classmates were by Obama, more than I'd ever seen in my life at that point). I was still in NC through June 2016, so I was able to vote for Hillary that time.
I have bad luck with governor primaries, though. Fingers crossed next year will be my year and Spanberger will win the primary. I think she will. Knock on wood.
Larger point is a good one. Most Americans don't even vote in the primaries, and if they do, they often don't get the candidate they voted for. That's just the reality of our political system. I did not ultimately vote for Biden in this primary, nor did I vote for him in the 2020 primary. I voted for Warren in 2020 and I didn't vote this year for the first time in a long time.