His entire operation was CC oriented. The state Chair came out for him and the membership really worked hard for him. Those who are huge in the state organization staked their reputation and lost big time. Two south GA activists, one who actually ran for State Rep, lost out. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, who campaigned for Ralph, couldn't deliver his own district. Ralph had homeschooled kids doing door to door and sign waving.
I don't think there was a mass movement from the Dems to cross over. If there was, they would have also voted against Sonny and some others more or less like-minded with Ralph. Looking at the numbers, you could cut the anti-Sonny votes in half and out of the pool altogether and that would still have given Cagle the win. The numbers just don't add up for some mass Dem vote crossover. I doubt 50K+ would have been the amount to cross over when so much was at stake on the Dems' side. This whole concept is a lot of fluff with little substance.
Ralph just relied on his small core group. He banked on a nasty race to keep people at home. Then his small core group would turn out regardless. But this whole plan failed.