I agree, Carter did way better in the South than any non-Southern democrat would have. This was especially evident in 1980 when the South was very close even though Reagan took every Southern state but GA (and WV).
But I don’t see why Scoop Jackson wouldn’t have appealed to people more in enough other states (like Ca and my IL) than the hayseed Carter, even if he lost a few peaceniks votes to apathy or McCarthy. I expect it would have been another close race.
Fortunately, we’ll never find out who is right. If Jackson had won, it’s very possible he would’ve won reelection in 1980, and we’d have never had Reagan.
WV ain’t Southern., It’s a Border StateThat was settled in 1863. Plus, WV voted for the GOP presidential candidate in each of 1895, 1900, 1904 and 1908; of the 13 Southern states (OK was admitted in 1907), only once did a single istate vote for the GOP presidential candidate, and it was KY voting for McKinley over Bryan by less than 300 votes in 1896.