What the other commenter said. Southern Democrats switched parties as part of the Southern Strategy ('realignment'). This wasn't backroom stuff, it's well-docum

What the other commenter said. Southern Democrats switched parties as part of the Southern Strategy ('realignment'). This wasn't backroom stuff, it's well-documented in lots of history books using contemporaneous resources. Wikipedia is as good a place as any to start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy