It is obvious to all observers that this presidential election cycle is the strangest in recent history. Both parties faced contentious nomination battles, and the primary season has proven to be incredibly divisive, factionalizing both Republicans and Democrats. During the months leading to the Republican National Convention, I supported Ted Cruz and engaged in many battles with Trump’s supporters. When no miracle occurred at the RNC, I had a choice to make – would I support my party’s nominee, or would I undervote the presidential race in November?

I chose to support Donald Trump rather than undervote the race.

The initial reason I chose to support Trump has to do with our national debt: At $19.3 trillion and climbing, it is an unsustainable, immoral burden on the next generation, and it has become a national security threat. While I have no illusions that Trump will reverse the direction of our debt, I do believe strongly that the debt will grow more slowly under Trump than under Clinton. That difference in pace will give grassroots activists like me a bigger window of time in which to make citizen-led reforms that have a chance of actually decreasing our debt in the coming decades.

That being said, I have come to a realization over the last few weeks that has cemented my support. It’s not about the candidate – it’s about those who are supporting him.

This entire election cycle has been about insurgency. The rise of both Trump and Bernie Sanders is a testament to that. People are sick and tired of Washington, D.C., and its overbearing reach into our daily lives. On the GOP side, the reaction was to nominate the most outside-the-box candidate in the field.

This is actually a 90-percent victory for the efforts of liberty activists over the last eight years. Stay with me here: We have been trying to convince the American public that Washington is indeed the problem. Trump’s nomination is acknowledgement by the voting public that they finally agree with us.

Now, I’m not convinced that Trump is the right solution to that problem. I supported Cruz because I thought he was the guy who would have given us a 100-percent victory: a return to the Constitution. Obviously, we have more work to do in educating folks about that solution.

But we won’t be able to make that educational push with a President Clinton. Her abuse of that office will make the nomination of Vermin Supreme seem a viable option in 2020. It’s only with Trump in office that we will be able to say to the insurgents, “We’re glad you’ve come 90 percent of the way. Now let’s continue to fight for a return to the Constitution, so we can actually fix the problem.” We won’t be able to say that if our undervotes cause him to lose the election – not only will we have Hillary Clinton, we will be blamed for it and will alienate Trump’s entire supporter base.

I’ve said it on air and in print, and I’ve held this view for a long time – the only time my vote is a moral stamp of approval is during the primaries, when I have the luxury of standing on principle vis-á-vis the candidate himself. In the general election, my vote is a statistic. I need to be very careful how I deploy that statistic to serve the bigger picture in the best way possible. I believe supporting Trump for the presidency is a stepping-stone to a bigger victory for liberty.

-Kristina Cook is a longtime grassroots activist and the former host of Grassroots Radio Colorado and the Kristina Cook Show Podcast