The story goes that in the post Civil Rights era, there was a political re-alignment where the pro-segregation part of the Democrat coalition re-aligned with the Republican party, particularly with Nixon’s “Southern Strategy”. My question is why was Carter an exception? It makes sense he was able to win his home state of Georgia, but how did he flip the remainder of those states? Some, like Alabama, were close. But others like Mississippi were won easily.
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The story goes that in the post Civil Rights era, there was a political re-alignment where the pro-segregation part of the Democrat coalition re-aligned with the Republican party, particularly with Nixon’s “Southern Strategy”. My question is why was Carter an exception? It makes sense he was able to win his home state of Georgia, but how did he flip the remainder of those states? Some, like Alabama, were close. But others like Mississippi were won easily.
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Nixon backlash.
He wasn’t an exception, the realignment you’re referring to didn’t happen overnight. It really took between, say, 1964 and like 2012 to complete fully.
>Why was Jimmy Carter able to recapture the South in the 1976 presidential election?
This article gives an election-by-election explanation of the realignment. A Short History of White Racism in the Two-Party System | The Weekly Sift
He was a Georgia peanut farmer.
I was stationed at Fort Benning. In Columbus, there was a great little fried fish restaurant. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name. Black owed. Mostly black customers. In the dining room, on the center of the back wall, was a picture of none other than Jimmy Carter.
He was a southern pro life moderate democrat and Ford was a northern moderate republican. With issues of ideology taking the backstage in that particular election, matters of regionalism could have had more influence. Plus Carter’s campaigning on Watergate and ethics in government could have just hit harder in the more moralistic south vs other areas