The chart depicts the trend in the Republican share of the two party presidential vote in Texas and the Confederate South from 1872-2000. In 1872, before the end of Reconstruction, the Republican presidential candidate garnered a majority in the South though not in Texas. Until 1952 almost without exception Republican presidential candidates received only a minority of votes in Texas and the South. The major exception was 1928 when New York Governor Al Smith, a wet northeastern Catholic, lost Texas as well as Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia in the South. In 1948 the Dixiecrats, led by Strom Thurmond, bolted the Democratic party winning Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina but not Texas and the rest of the South which went for Democratic Truman. By 1952 Eisenhower had enough appeal to draw some southern states to the Republican column including Texas which went for Ike in 1956 as well. Like most other southern states Texas turned firmly Republican at the presidential level when it went for Nixon in 1972. With the exception of support for southern Democrat Carter in 1976, both Texas and the South more generally have supported Republican presidential candidates since then.