Although he lost in a landslide nationwide, Jimmy Carter still came close to winning lots of southern states in 1980. He even overperformed Bill Clinton significantly. I know that there was the regional factor that gave him the 1976 election, but I always believed that Reagan was a very good fit for the South (especially compared to GOP types like Ford or HW pre-1988). Therefore, it's surprising that Reagan just barely managed to win these states despite a nationwide landslide. And John Anderson probably cost Carter more votes than Reagan.
And if you flip all states Reagan carried with less than 50%, Carter wins the election with this map (Carter at 284 EVs):
