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[[Image:1968 PresidentialElection.jpg|right|thumb|400px|1968 electoral map. [[The South]] was carried by Democrat Gov. Geo. Wallace of Alabama who ran on a 3rd party ticket. In 1972 Nixon carried every state in the Union except [[Massachusetts]] against a radical extreme socialist.  Massachusetts was the home state of Nixon's 1960 presidential rival, [[John Kennedy]].]]

[[Image:1968 PresidentialElection.jpg|right|thumb|400px|1968 electoral map. [[The South]] was carried by Democrat Gov. Geo. Wallace of Alabama who ran on a 3rd party ticket. In 1972 Nixon carried every state in the Union except [[Massachusetts]] against a radical extreme socialist.  Massachusetts was the home state of Nixon's 1960 presidential rival, [[John Kennedy]].]]

The '''Southern strategy''' is an academic theory that posits that Republican candidates used racist appeals to gain electoral support in the South beginning in the late 1960s. Republicans today regularly deny this, and for some reason ignore Republicans in the past who have agreed that a white racist backlash benefitted their party.

The '''Southern strategy''' is a [[Democrat]] [[conspiracy theory]] that alleges [[Richard Nixon]] carried Southern states in the [[1968 presidential election]] in the wake of the [[bi-partisan]] [[1964 Civil Rights Act]]. In fact, [[the South]] was carried by Democrat [[renegade]] [[George C. Wallace]].  

When asked why he thought the Republican Party was growing in the South, Frank Rouse, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party in the early 1970s, said, "You don't want to hear this. It's race in North Carolina. That is not supposition."<ref>Christensen, Rob. "The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics." 2009. p. 58</ref> When North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Gavin expressed dismay as to why he was not gaining more traction with black voters despite his efforts, future Republican U.S. Senator Jesse Helms said, "He seems to us to be missing the point if he implies his party ought to undertake to appeal to minority bloc votes. Such a course, we would warn, would surely disrupt the modern growth experienced by Mr. Gavin's party in the state during the past several years."<ref>Christensen, Rob. "The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics." 2009. p. 59</ref>

In 1972, the Democrats nominated Sen. Tom Eagleton of [[Missouri]], a [[slave]] state. Eagleton was booted from the ticket after the convention for [[mental health]] problems and replaced with an Easterner and Kennedy in-law. In the 1972 November General Election, for the first time in almost 40 years Democrats did not have a Southerner on the ticket, and Southerners (along with the rest of the country) overwhelmingly rejected two Northern [[liberal]]s at the top of their ticket. In 1976, 1992, 1996, 2008, and 2012 the South returned to the Democrat fold.  

Beginning in the 1960s, the Mississippi Democratic Party was split into two factions, the more conservative "Regulars" and the black-dominated, pro-civil rights "Loyalists". In 1976 the Regulars and the Loyalists reached a compromise and agreed to jointly-select their next national delegation. In response, former Regular leader Leon Bramlett joined the Republican Party, saying, "The Democratic Party which I knew and worked for no longer exists. There is no room in the new united party for people like me, for we are not willing to embrace the philosophy of the national Democratic Party and abandon the principles that made this country great."<ref>{{cite news| title = Ex-Dem leader switches parties| work = The Delta Democrat-Times| page = 7| date = March 19, 1976| url = }}</ref>

With the end of [[Jim Crow]] laws in the mid 1960s, the South became more Republican as it became less racist. The [[War on Poverty]] - which incentivized  out-of-wedlock children - was designed to entice Blacks back onto the [[Democrat plantation]].

The RNC chairman apologized in 2005 on behalf of his party for Republicans historically ignoring the black vote and appealing to white racist sentiment.<ref name="Mehlman">{{cite news|last=Rondy|first=John|title=GOP ignored black vote, chairman says: RNC head apologizes at NAACP meeting|url=https://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/07/15/gop_ignored_black_vote_chairman_says/|newspaper=The Boston Globe|date=July 15, 2005|agency=Reuters|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112220033/http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/07/15/gop_ignored_black_vote_chairman_says/|archivedate=January 12, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="wapo-apology">{{cite news|work=[[The Washington Post]]|title=RNC Chief to Say It Was 'Wrong' to Exploit Racial Conflict for Votes|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/13/AR2005071302342.html|first=Mike|last=Allen|authorlink=Michael Allen (journalist)|date=July 14, 2005|accessdate=October 14, 2013}}</ref>

In the movie ''[[Death of a Nation: Can We Save America a Second Time?]]'', [[Dinesh D'Souza]] points out that this alleged strategy was actually one of winning the support of the [[Sun Belt]] rather than the Deep South.<ref>D'Souza, Dinesh (August 23, 2018). [https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/402754-the-myth-of-nixons-southern-strategy The myth of Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’]. ''The Hill''. Retrieved August 23, 2018.</ref>

 

[[Liberals]], repeatedly unpopular in the South, have tried to attribute this alleged strategy to racial politics.  The reality is that liberals have always played the [[political card|racist card]] far more often than [[Republicans]] do. Examples of this racialization are the terms "[[Welfare state]]" and "[[Welfare queen]]", even though the original welfare queen [[Linda Taylor]] was a white woman.

 

The pairing of Northern liberals with Southern Democrats on a presidential ticket has long been the strategic cornerstone of the Democrats' appeal to the racist vote. The promise of government handouts is appealing to many racist Democrats, irrespective of what region of the country they reside.

{| class="wikitable"

{| class="wikitable"

|2020||[[Joe Biden]] ('''South''')<ref>https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/joe-biden-delaware-civil-war-860886/</ref>||[[Kamala Harris]] (West)

|2020||[[Joe Biden]] ('''South''')<ref>https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/joe-biden-delaware-civil-war-860886/</ref>||[[Kamala Harris]] (West)

|}

|}

==Lee Atwater==

==Lee Atwater==