kernals12
Banned
One thing I find fascinating about the 1976 election is how Jimmy Carter provided a large dead cat bounce for Democrats in the South. 1976 marked the last time ever that a Democrat won South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi or Texas. And after his home state went for him in 1980, Georgia has only gone Democrat one time since, just barely for Bill Clinton in 1992, and North Carolina has only gone blue for Barack Obama in 2008. 1980 was also the last time ever that the South has voted more Democratic than the nation.
Carter's popularity in Dixie certainly helped down ballot. The Democrats continued to dominate the region's congressional districts and state legislatures into the 1990s. It wasn't until 2012 that the last Democratic controlled state legislature in the former confederacy (Arkansas) flipped to the GOP.
So what if the Democrats had nominated, say, Birch Bayh? Would we see the last vestiges of the Solid South vanish by 1990?
Carter's popularity in Dixie certainly helped down ballot. The Democrats continued to dominate the region's congressional districts and state legislatures into the 1990s. It wasn't until 2012 that the last Democratic controlled state legislature in the former confederacy (Arkansas) flipped to the GOP.
So what if the Democrats had nominated, say, Birch Bayh? Would we see the last vestiges of the Solid South vanish by 1990?