Certainly. The 'Rats executed a successful strategy of nominating someone who could peel off some Republican-leaning Southern States from the Upper Midwest and Mountain States. They lost California, but got enough of the South to go with the big Middle Atlantic States to guarantee victory.
In due course, the Southerners eventually realized, to their rue, that pride in having "one o' ouah own" in office was no guarantee that he wouldn't turn out to be a McGovernite nitwit politically.
Rock on.
And since then y'all have, usually, come on over to the Party of Lincoln. Welcome aboard.