George Wallace was and remained a lifelong democrat except for one of his several presidential runs when he ran as a 3rd party candidate, he remained a democrat and became governor again.
You are correct he returned to run in 1972 as a Democrat and had MORE delegates when he was shot by a “crazed lone assassin” than any other candidate.
Democrat primary runs back then were dangerous as the murder of RFK would document.
Carter took some of that southern populism from Wallace to a victory in 76 as did Bubba a few terms later.