Editing Dixiecrat (section)

== Subsequent elections ==
The States' Rights Democratic Party collapsed after the 1948 election, as Truman, the Democratic National Committee, and the New Deal Southern Democrats acted to ensure that the Dixiecrat movement would not return in the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952 presidential election]]. Some Southern political figures, such as [[Leander Perez]] of Louisiana, attempted to keep it in existence in their districts.<ref>Glen Jeansonne, ''Leander Perez: Boss of the Delta'' (Jackson, MS:University Press of Mississippi, 1977) pp. 185-189.</ref> Wright continued to defend racial segregation, but conceded that complete obstinance along the lines of the 1948 departure from the Democratic Party would cause his home state of Mississippi to lose "its standing with everybody in America."{{sfn|Smith|2019|pp=77–78}} Former Dixiecrats received some backlash at the [[1952 Democratic National Convention]], but all Southern delegations were seated after agreeing to a party loyalty pledge.<ref name="white">{{cite news |last1=White |first1=William S. |date=25 July 1952 |title=Democrats Vote Today; Southerners Seated; Truman Puts His Support Behind Stevenson |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/520725convention-dem-ra.html |access-date=2022-07-20}}</ref> Segregationist Alabama Senator [[John Sparkman]] was selected as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1952, helping to boost party loyalty in the South.<ref name="white" />

=== Legacy ===
The Dixiecrats are considered to have begun the weakening of the Democratic Solid South.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Cohn |first=Nate |date=2014-12-04 |title=Demise of the Southern Democrat Is Now Nearly Complete |language=en |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/upshot/demise-of-the-southern-democrat-is-now-nearly-compete.html |access-date=2023-08-21}}</ref>

Regardless of the power struggle within the Democratic Party concerning segregation policy, the South remained a strongly Democratic voting bloc for local, state, and federal Congressional elections, but increasingly not in presidential elections. Republican [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] won several Southern states in the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952]] and [[1956 United States presidential election|1956 presidential election]]s. In the 1956 election, former [[Commissioner of Internal Revenue]] [[T. Coleman Andrews]] received just under 0.2 percent of the popular vote running as the presidential nominee of the States' Rights Party.<ref name="uselectionatlas">{{cite web |title=1956 Presidential General Election Results |url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1956&minper=0&f=0&off=0&elect=0 |access-date=25 April 2023}}</ref> In the [[1960 United States presidential election|1960 presidential election]], Republican [[Richard Nixon]] won several Southern states, and Senator [[Harry F. Byrd]] of Virginia received the votes of several [[unpledged electors]] from Alabama and Mississippi. In the [[1964 United States presidential election|1964 presidential election]], Republican [[Barry Goldwater]] won all four states that Thurmond had carried in 1948. In the [[1968 United States presidential election|1968 presidential election]], Republican [[Richard Nixon]] or third-party candidate [[George Wallace]] won every former Confederate state except Texas. Thurmond eventually left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party in 1964, charging the Democrats with having "abandoned the people" and having repudiated the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]]; he subsequently worked on the [[Barry Goldwater 1964 presidential campaign|presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=1964-09-17 |title=Thurmond Break is Made Official; He Will Work as Republican for Goldwater Election |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/17/archives/thurmond-break-is-made-official-he-will-work-as-republican-for.html |access-date= |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Within the next few decades, a realignment took place whereby most conservatives (economic, cultural, and racial conservatives included) migrated to the Republican Party, with liberals on the same issues going to the Democrats, resulting in more heterogenous national platforms. The Southern states subsequently shifted over time to voting mainly Republican, with the Northeast switching to voting mainly Democratic.

By the early 2010s, statistician and political analyst [[Nate Cohn]] wrote of the "demise of the Southern Democrat".<ref name=":1" />