In the 60s and 70s many Southern democrat politicians, from Strom Thurmond to Jesse Helms, switched parties and became republican. You didn’t get anymore conservative than Sam Ervin, and he remained a democrat. No doubt if he had lived abortion and the democrats becoming uber liberal would have made him a republican. Jimmy Carter won most Southern states because he ran as a moderate and because Ford pardoned Nixon. But he still almost lost the election. He was nothing in the world but a far-left liberal and that’s exactly how he governed. He was a disaster as president.
Some did, many more did not -- from Texas Lyndon Johnson to West Virginia's Senator KKK Byrd.
How conservative were those new Republicans?
Well how much Federal "free stuff" are they known to have turned down?
So I'm not saying some Southerners weren't conservatives, but more conservative than everyone else?
Naw, they weren't.