Dixiecrat

In modern usage, especially since 1956, Dixiecrat refers to Southern Democrats who have traditionally voted in support of the Democratic Party, but may have turned against that party in certain elections, or in general, or, if they remain in the Democratic party, may be Conservative Democrats. The term is a portmanteau of "Dixie", describing the South, and "Democrat".

Subsequent elections

The Dixiecrat Party largely dissolved after the 1948 election. Senators Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms eventually switched parties and joined the Republicans. Several others remained in the Democratic Party and went on to become prominent Democratic Senators. These former Dixiecrats, turned Senators, went on to serve multiple terms in the service of their respective states. These long careers in the Senate elevated their seniority putting them in positions of power and prestige. Today, one original member of the Dixiecrat Party remains in public service as a Senator, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia.

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None of these Representatives and Senators who bucked the Democratic party ever suffered punishment from their caucuses by expulsion or demotion of seniority or removal from prized committee chairmanships.

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Regardless of the power struggle within the Democratic Party, concerning segregation policy, the south remained a strongly Democratic voting block for local, state, and federal Congressional elections. This was not true of Presidential elections.

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In the 1960s, the courting of white Southern Democratic voters was the basis of the "southern strategy" of the Republican Party's Presidential Campaigns. Republican Presidential Candidate Barry Goldwater carried the Deep South in 1964, despite losing in a landslide in the rest of the nation to President Lyndon B Johnson of Texas. Johnson surmised that his advocacy behind passing the 1964 Civil Rights Act would lose the South for the Democratic party. The only Democratic presidential candidate after 1956 to solidly carry the Deep South was President Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election.

Related Topics:
1960s - Southern strategy - Barry Goldwater - Deep South - 1964 - Lyndon B Johnson - Texas - Jimmy Carter - 1976

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Into the twenty-first century, the South has changed from a Democratic monolith to a majority Republican sector of the country with GOP gains in state legislatures.

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