Why didn’t Winston County, AL vote GOP in 1968 and 1976?

[I’m not Stu]

Why did it vote for Wallace instead of Nixon? Why did Carter win it in 1976? It didn’t vote for Thurmond in 1948. Why did it vote Dixiecrat in 1968 and for the national Democratic Party in 1976? Other than FDR’s 1932 landslide, it usually wouldn’t vote for a Democrat.

[VPH]

I can't speak to all of it, but the Thurmond 1948 coalition was more planter elite while the Wallace 1968 coalition was more working class populist. Winston County is much more in the latter.

[Alben Barkley]

I can't speak to all of it, but the Thurmond 1948 coalition was more planter elite while the Wallace 1968 coalition was more working class populist. Winston County is much more in the latter.

As for 1976, I mean it was Jimmy Carter. He won a lot of places in the South that Democrats haven’t since, and even did better in some places like this than previous Democrats had. He obviously had a uniquely strong appeal to the region.

[Calthrina950]

I can't speak to all of it, but the Thurmond 1948 coalition was more planter elite while the Wallace 1968 coalition was more working class populist. Winston County is much more in the latter.

As for 1976, I mean it was Jimmy Carter. He won a lot of places in the South that Democrats haven’t since, and even did better in some places like this than previous Democrats had. He obviously had a uniquely strong appeal to the region.

As an example of this, Carter is the only Democrat in history to have swept Georgia's counties, which not even Franklin D. Roosevelt-who got 91% (!) in Georgia in 1932-could pull off.

[If my soul was made of stone]

The creeping of Generic Southern Culture into former cultural enclaves was well underway by that point, aided by decades of Lost Cause-ism, the World Wars wrecking ethnic identities with Axis or neutral sympathies (Winston County, like much of northern Alabama and Mississippi, appears to be primarily of Irish extraction), and the backlash against desegregation.

[Calthrina950]

The creeping of Generic Southern Culture into former cultural enclaves was well underway by that point, aided by decades of Lost Cause-ism, the World Wars wrecking ethnic identities with Axis or neutral sympathies (Winston County, like much of northern Alabama and Mississippi, appears to be primarily of Irish extraction), and the backlash against desegregation.

What do you mean by "Generic Southern Culture"?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The creeping of Generic Southern Culture into former cultural enclaves was well underway by that point, aided by decades of Lost Cause-ism, the World Wars wrecking ethnic identities with Axis or neutral sympathies (Winston County, like much of northern Alabama and Mississippi, appears to be primarily of Irish extraction), and the backlash against desegregation.

What do you mean by "Generic Southern Culture"?

Less parochial variance based on history, settlement, economics or religion and more of a regional or later national identity. A modern equivalent would be Elliot County, KY.

[Sol]

The creeping of Generic Southern Culture into former cultural enclaves was well underway by that point, aided by decades of Lost Cause-ism, the World Wars wrecking ethnic identities with Axis or neutral sympathies (Winston County, like much of northern Alabama and Mississippi, appears to be primarily of Irish extraction), and the backlash against desegregation.

This is probably all true to an extent but I think it's less explanatory than the gradual weakening of Civil War era voting patterns as the 1860s finally faded into full-on historical memory. Meanwhile, the 50s, 60s and 70s were a time long before the Democratic brand was dead in the white rural south, which meant that there was a rare window for Democrats to win traditionally unionist areas. The Ponder machine won over Madison County NC in this period and Jimmy Carter managed to win every county in Georgia, including ones which were firmly Republican historically, like Fannin.

FWIW, Upland Alabama is much more 'Scots-Irish' than Catholic Irish and shows up as predominantly 'American' on some data, which I think means we can kind of rule out ethnicity as a factor.

[Vice President Christian Man]

George Wallace was because he was from that state so he likely got some sort of native son bump and I doubt he would've won the county if he was from another state, except possibly Mississippi. On the other hand Jimmy Carter remains a mystery. It was a historically unionist county and similar counties in TN/NC went for Ford. Perhaps Carter had more of an appeal to that county compared to the ones of East TN/West NC. What's more puzzling is that it was Dem. at the state level through at least the '90s despite returning to the GOP at the federal level.

[LobsterDuck]

Deep Southerners

[Vosem]

Historically forever-Republican Fannin County, GA, voted for every Democratic gubernatorial nominee from 1970-1994. After the Civil Rights Act and the emergence of a new Republican Party in the South, some traditionally pro-Republican enclaves weakened a bit during the period before 1994 when Southern white voters were still winnable for the Democratic Party in general.

[TDAS04]

Historically forever-Republican Fannin County, GA, voted for every Democratic gubernatorial nominee from 1970-1994. After the Civil Rights Act and the emergence of a new Republican Party in the South, some traditionally pro-Republican enclaves weakened a bit during the period before 1994 when Southern white voters were still winnable for the Democratic Party in general.

Also, Wallace carried Winston four times for Alabama Governor (though only in 1982 was there even a serious Republican candidate).