I can't see the GOP winning in 76. People would be tried of the Republicans, and the GOP still have to face the affects of Nam, Counterculture, the rise in crime, the War on Drugs, the oil crisis, the recession. People was already losing faith in the government without Watergate, and would what a charge in government.
Other Dems are Lloyd Bentsen, Udall, Birch Bayh, Gary Hart, Sargent Shriver, Frank Church, John Glenn. Jimmy Carter could be a VP.
(And Ford is unlikey to be VP. That would go to either George H. W. Bush, Jack Kemp, John Connally.
On the other hand, the GOP could win, and do better (No Watergate, No Ford giving Nixon a pardon, Nixon term ending on a high note with a better economy.), but we see the Dems back in the White House for 1980. Better to have the Dems win, suffer a failed administration, and see a Republican landslide for the 1980s. Like Edward Brooke to make the GOP the party of Civil Rights again.