Wallace wins the Democratic primary for Governor in 1958, and thus, is elected Governor of Alabama earlier than he was IOTL. He vastly improves race relations in Alabama as Governor, and in 1962, his wife runs as a surrogate candidate, essentially keeping the Governor's mansion in Wallace's hands. He endorses Lyndon Johnson in 1960 and 1964, hoping to make strong connections with the national party in a future bid for Senator or President.
Wallace is elected Governor himself again in his own right in 1966. He presides over sweeping Civil Rights reforms and a general increase in welfare expenditure across the state. His plans to make a bid for the Democratic nomination in 1968 are dashed by his wife's sudden death, keeping Wallace out of speculation for the top of the ticket. Wallace, however, will get the nod to run for the Vice Presidency, on a ticket led by Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy.
McCarthy-Wallace would go down in defeat to Rockefeller-Goldwater, though this was by no means the end of electoral politics for George Wallace. Wallace would be re-elected Governor of Alabama in 1970, thanks to a change in the state constitution to allow for Governors to seek a second consecutive term. Wallace's third term would be similar to his second, with Wallace presiding over a great deal of desegregation and change in the state of Alabama.
He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 1972, but did well enough that he came in third place in the actual primary results, only behind eventual nominee Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern. Wallace forewent a bid for the Governorship in 1974 to instead concentrate on Presidential politics, with the Rockefeller administration coming to a quiet close in 1977.
The 1976 Presidential Campaign was fought between the New Deal-wing of the Democratic Party and the more enthusiastic New Left. Representing the New Dealers were both Henry Jackson and George Wallace, while both George McGovern and Teddy Kennedy appeared to the New Left elements of the party, though the latter wouldn't enter the race himself. Wallace managed to rack up enough delegates to earn him the nomination, despite a fragmented and painful campaign season. At the Democratic National Convention, Wallace chose McGovern to placate New Left forces within the party, and declared that he would, as President, bring about a Fair Society, in the vein of the Johnson administration's Great Society programs.
Wallace and McGovern would go on to defeat the Republican ticket of Hugh Scott and Gerald Ford in November, and Wallace himself would become the first President from the Deep South since the Civil War with his inauguration in 1977.