A little similar but no Republican could have won in 1964 due to the Kennedy assassination and many on the right considered LBJ to be a "conservative" enough candidate.
The first election that I was old enough to vote in was 1976 and I had voted for Reagan in the primary and argued with my Dad who was a Ford guy. I thought Reagan might win the nomination since it was a pretty clear split of delegates with the edge to Ford. I was pretty bummed out after Ford was nominated but dear old Dad gave me some consolation that proved to be very true. He said they did Reagan a favor by not nominating him because no Republican had a chance in the general election because of Watergate and that if the Dems nominated someone outside of DC with perceived high morals they would win handily.
The GOPe, Ted Cruz included, are just fine with the Dems doing the dirty work installing the social welfare state and destroying our sovereignty with TPP. That’s what the big donors want and that is all the rotten GOP cares about now.