I’m the exact same way. The first election I voted in was Bush v Gore. Then and for nearly two decades later, I would look closely at each candidate no matter the party, and vote for the best candidate. I tended to vote for the Democrat more often, but was never a straight down ballot voter, especially for state and local elections.
At this point though, the ® next to someone’s name on the ballot is so toxic that I won’t even consider them. They’ve all drunken the MAGA Koolaid and are doing everything they can to destroy our government and rip up the Constitution in the name of Trump. Maaaaaaaaaybe if I saw someone with balls to standup and say “hey, I’m a Republican but all this Trump worship has gone too far” then I would consider them. But that’s not the case here. Everyone running on the Republican ticket in my area has Trump’s balls in and around their mouth, so I will vote straight (D) for the next several years.