One would think that Carter, a Southern evangelical Christian, was a terrible cultural fit for L.A. county while Ford, a moderate Midwestern Republican, would be a much better fit. But Carter won the county by 2 points.
Solid support from Blacks and most of Hollywood, which was still enjoying the glow of the success of the movie "All the President's Men" starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.
Again, we look back at 1976 as "ho-hum" or "Carter was an evangelical". That hurt him in the Boston area and possibly San Francisco, but probably nowhere else. Carter was clearly different from Ford on the environment, "welfare", aid to cities, and the then-hypothetical Martin Luther King holiday-- which enabled him to carry LA County, Cook County, and New York City.
