1980. The South went Dem again after 64. It hasn't gone back since 1980
I’d say yes, but if you look at the state by state results its still pretty close (just look at places like AR and NC). I think that Carter was pretty much an aberration, 1972 I think can be seen as the time when the south began to whole heartedly reject the National Democratic Party however Carter won the south back in 1976 but his disastrous time in office did for him in the south just as it did for him every where else. I think that the South has never really become as solidly republican as it was democratic and thanks to civil rights will probably never be (who can really doubt that intimidation and segregation helped the Democrats in the south?). I think the South votes at the presidential level very much in terms of who represents its attitudes and values. In 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992 and 2000 you can see the south voting for the guy who represented its values and attitudes Bush is probably as strong in the south as Reagan he embodies southern attitudes that well and the “war on terror” will have only reinforced this southern identification with Bush and his popular vote total should go a fair way up thanks to this boost in southern support.
The Democrat Solid South has not become a Republican Solid South, instead it is a competitive region that leans to the GOP but generally votes at the presidential level on highly personal assessments of the candidates and that’s been the case right back to the introduction of civil rights by LBJ which alienated so many southerners. The Civil Rights act in of its self was not the problem the problem and the thing which seems to have really offended southerners was the lurch to the left of the Democratic Party on social issues during the 1970’s with McGovern and in 1968 Eugene McCarthy being the vocal trial blazers, it was their mocking attitude to southern social attitudes that coming on top of the civil rights issue seemed to reinforce a perception that the Democratic Party was almost provoking the south into voting against them. And that’s what happened.
