I think Gramm blew it in in ‘96 when he lost it after Pat Buchanan’s early success. He alienated a lot of people who might have backed him later. Dole mostly stiluck to his knitting and rode it out.
The Louisiana Caucus thought they were stacking the deck for Gramm but they were really stacking the deck for Buchanan. (Very few polling places — as far as I know paid for by the party rather than the state....probably would have been illegal if the state ran it...it took hours to vote...only the very devoted Buchanan supporters stayed.)