Why didn't Jimmy Carter win Virginia in 1976?

[RINO Tom]

Only Southern State he didn't carry that year.

Also, did Governor Ronald Reagan lose the primary to George H W Bush in Michigan in 1980 because he primaried President Gerald Ford in 1976?

Someone is probably much more knowledgeable than I am on this, but the Southern states that seemed to accept conservatism the fastest in the mid-Twentieth Century were Florida, Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi and South Carolina.  Oklahoma and Texas seem tied to being A) more Western, B) more pro-business in general with oil and C) have a lot of Northern transplants.  Mississippi and South Carolina were, likely, serious backlash to national Democrats courting the Black vote more aggressively.  If I were to GUESS RE: Virginia and Florida, I would say they had the most "fiscally conservative" Northern retirees?  At least I would imagine that to be the case in Florida.  Virginia's suburbs (NOVA) were relatively young/growing then, so they were probably much more conservative than they are today, too.

[RINO Tom]

Only Southern State he didn't carry that year.

Also, did Governor Ronald Reagan lose the primary to George H W Bush in Michigan in 1980 because he primaried President Gerald Ford in 1976?

Someone is probably much more knowledgeable than I am on this, but the Southern states that seemed to accept conservatism the fastest in the mid-Twentieth Century were Florida, Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi and South Carolina.  Oklahoma and Texas seem tied to being A) more Western, B) more pro-business in general with oil and C) have a lot of Northern transplants.  Mississippi and South Carolina were, likely, serious backlash to national Democrats courting the Black vote more aggressively.  If I were to GUESS RE: Virginia and Florida, I would say they had the most "fiscally conservative" Northern retirees?  At least I would imagine that to be the case in Florida.  Virginia's suburbs (NOVA) were relatively young/growing then, so they were probably much more conservative than they are today, too.

A lot of the folks in NOVA as well as Richmond aren't of the native Southern stock, even in 1976. So you're dead on the money with that. I may wrong about this, but I recall reading that Virginia Blacks were some of the last Southern Black voters to swing over to the Democrats, so this may have had some lingering effects in '76.

Well, if someone is going to bump this ... haha, I have always been fascinated with the development of Black political loyalty.  There is seriously hardly any pre-1932 data (convenient, Democrats!  Lol, just kidding), and most of the "story" is told through generalization.  (FDR won over the Black vote because New Deal, and Goldwater pushed them to GOP for good, that end of story!)  I want to know the details of if different geographic areas might have switched from the GOP first, which remained more loyal, what sub-demographics of Blacks switched first, etc.