Part of his victory can be chalked up to where the state was politically at the time.
"We should understand the 1976 election in Texas as part of a gradual transformation that occurred over several decades," Mark Lawrence, the director of the LBJ Presidential Library, told The Texas Newsroom.
So, why was Carter the exception?
Lawrence cited several elements that contributed to Carter's victory here, including "Carter's stature as a white Southerner."
"I think Texas voters, like voters across the South, were inclined to give him a close look, because he looked like them, sounded like them, came from the South — which was somewhat unusual in the history of the United States after the Civil War," Lawrence said.
Natasha Altema McNeely, an associate professor of political science at University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, said Carter was also able to win because he garnered the Black and Hispanic votes in states across the South.
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