To answer your question, did they ever exist? Yes, they did and still do in terms of average ordinary people. In terms of elected officials in a lot of states and on the national level not as much. In states like KY there are quite a few conservative Democrats, I identify as such as well. Statistically there are many more Democrats in KY, than Republicans, yet notice which party is overwhelmingly in office. We currently have a Democratic Governor, and likely the only reason that he was elected over the incumbent, was basically a very similar scenario to how the recent presidential election turned out. My prediction is that the next time around if the R's nominate a candidate that is not abrasive and as polarizing then they stand a good chance of winning back the office in terms of the governorship.