1962 United States Senate election in Louisiana

Last updated

1962 United States Senate election in Louisiana
Flag of Louisiana (1912-2006).svg
←  1956 November 6, 1962 1968  →
  Russell Billiu Long.jpg No image.svg
Nominee Russell B. Long Taylor W. O'Hearn
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote318,838103,666
Percentage75.46%24.54%
1962 United States Senate election in Louisiana results map by parish.svg
Parish results
Long:     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%     >90%
Maloney:      50-60%     60-70%
U.S. senator before election

Russell Long
Democratic

Elected U.S. Senator

Russell Long
Democratic

The 1962 United States Senate election in Louisiana was held on November 6, 1962. Incumbent Democratic Senator Russell Long was elected to a fourth term in office.

Contents

On August 17, Long won the Democratic primary with 80.15% of the vote.

Long won the general election against Shreveport attorney Taylor W. O'Hearn, who staged a rare bid for statewide office on the Republican line. O'Hearn carried seven parishes in northern Louisiana, a sign of growing disenchantment by conservative Southern whites with the Kennedy administration, but Long still won an easy majority in a state that remained predominantly Democratic.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Results

1962 United States Senate Democratic primary [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Russell Long (incumbent) 407,162 80.15%
Democratic Philemon St. Amant100,84319.85%
Total votes508,005 100.00%

General election

Campaign

Taylor O'Hearn, a segregationist Democrat from Shreveport, Louisiana, switched parties to run as a Republican in 1962 for the U.S. Senate.

O'Hearn charged that Long was practicing "the same old pork barrel. He's promising everybody everything with their own money." He said that Long was attempting to take credit for all political progress in the state. Long refused to debate O'Hearn, who charged that the senator "doesn't have the guts to talk to the people about campaign issues." [2] Long replied that he was "not ashamed I've fought to get things for Louisiana. I'm not ashamed to go to the White House to talk to the president to get things done for my state and its people." [2]

O'Hearn also attacked Long for his alignment with the Kennedy administration. O'Hearn also claimed that Long voted 75 percent of the time for Kennedy policies: "These bills are not just socialistic but radical!" [2]

O'Hearn particularly attacked Long and Kennedy on foreign policy. He called the failed Bay of Pigs operation a "desertion of Cuban patriots... It's odd to me that Russell Long and Jack Kennedy were the only two persons in the country who did not know about the Cuban arms buildup." [2] He claimed that the Cuban blockade against Soviet missiles was "timed perfectly with the political campaign." [2]

O'Hearn said that he opposed foreign aid until neutral countries committed themselves to the West. He proposed that the United States withdraw from the United Nations until "the communist bloc pays its share." [2] In appealing for support, O'Hearn said that his "honor and integrity [are] the only things I own. No one is going to buy it, bargain for it, or obtain it in any other matter." [2]

Long denied O'Hearn's contention that he was automatically in lockstep with Kennedy policies. Long distanced himself on civil rights and voiced opposition to Kennedy's intervention in the desegregation of the University of Mississippi at Oxford after rioting by whites at the campus.

In a newspaper advertisement, Long declared himself an "Independent Thinker" who is "unalterably opposed to federal control of state education, foreign aid to Russia's satellites, unnecessary federal spending, and increased taxation." He also claimed to be a "leader in the fight to preserve our traditional southern way of life." [3] Long noted that he had managed to keep Fort Polk operating near Leesville in Vernon Parish and had fought for assistance to underprivileged children, the needy blind, small business, and farmers. [3]

Results

1962 United States Senate election [4]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Democratic Russell Long (incumbent) 318,838 75.46% Decrease2.svg24.54
Republican Taylor W. O'Hearn 103,66624.54%Increase2.svg24.54
Total votes422,504 100.00%

O'Hearn carried seven conservative north Louisiana parishes. He polled a clear majority in Louisiana's 4th congressional district. [5]

O'Hearn fared best in his native Caddo Parish, where he polled 64.7 percent of the vote. He received 58.7 percent of the vote in neighboring Madison Parish and also carried Webster, Morehouse, Bossier, Claiborne, and La Salle parishes. In ten other parishes, all in north Louisiana, O'Hearn drew more than 40 percent of the vote.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Webster Parish, Louisiana</span> Parish in Louisiana, United States

Webster Parish is a parish located in the northwestern section of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is Minden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tensas Parish, Louisiana</span> Parish in Louisiana, United States

Tensas Parish is a parish located in the northeastern section of the State of Louisiana; its eastern border is the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,147. It is the least populated parish in Louisiana. The parish seat is St. Joseph. The name Tensas is derived from the historic indigenous Taensa people. The parish was founded in 1843 following Indian Removal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madison Parish, Louisiana</span> Parish in Louisiana, United States

Madison Parish is a parish located on the northeastern border of the U.S. state of Louisiana, in the delta lowlands along the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,017. Its parish seat is Tallulah. The parish was formed in 1839.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overton Brooks</span> American congressman from Louisiana (1897–1961)

Thomas Overton Brooks was a Democratic U.S. representative from the Shreveport-based Fourth Congressional District of northwestern Louisiana, having served for a quarter century beginning on January 3, 1937.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell B. Long</span> American politician

Russell Billiu Long was an American Democratic politician and United States Senator from Louisiana from 1948 until 1987. Because of his seniority, he advanced to chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, serving for fifteen years, from 1966 to 1981, during the implementation of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty programs. Long also served as Assistant Majority Leader from 1965 to 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buddy Roemer</span> American politician (1943–2021)

Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer III was an American politician, investor, and banker who served as the 52nd governor of Louisiana from 1988 to 1992, and as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1988. In March 1991, while serving as governor, Roemer switched affiliation from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Treen</span> American politician (1928–2009)

David Conner Treen Sr. was an American politician and attorney from Louisiana. A member of the Republican Party, Treen served as U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district from 1973 to 1980 and the 51st governor of Louisiana from 1980 to 1984. Treen was the first Republican elected to either office since Reconstruction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Bennett Johnston</span> American politician

John Bennett Johnston Jr. is a retired American attorney, politician, and later lobbyist. A member of the Democratic Party, Johnston represented Louisiana in the U.S. Senate from 1972 to 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woody Jenkins</span> American politician

Louis Elwood Jenkins Jr., known as Woody Jenkins, is a newspaper editor in Baton Rouge and Central City, Louisiana, who served as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1972 to 2000 and waged three unsuccessful races for the United States Senate in 1978, 1980, and 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henson Moore</span> American politician, attorney and businessman

William Henson Moore III is an American attorney and businessman who is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, having represented Louisiana's 6th congressional district, based about Baton Rouge, from 1975 to 1987. He was only the second Republican to have represented Louisiana in the House since Reconstruction, the first having been David C. Treen, then of Jefferson Parish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 Louisiana gubernatorial election</span>

The 1964 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on March 3, 1964. Democrat John McKeithen won a highly-competitive primary and dispatched Republican Charlton Lyons in the general election, though Lyons made a historically good showing for a Louisiana Republican up to this point.

Foster Lonnie Campbell Jr. is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party from the U.S. state of Louisiana. Since 2003, he has been a member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. He served in the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republican Party of Louisiana</span> Louisiana affiliate of the Republican Party

The Republican Party of Louisiana is the affiliate of the Republican Party in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Its chair is Louis Gurvich, who was elected in 2018. It is currently the dominant party in the state, controlling all but one of Louisiana's six U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats, and both houses of the state legislature. The only statewide office that the party does not control is the governorship, which is currently held by Democrat John Bel Edwards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taddy Aycock</span> American politician

Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock, a conservative Democrat from Franklin in St. Mary Parish, was the only three-term lieutenant governor in 20th century Louisiana history. He served from 1960 to 1972. Aycock failed in his only bid for governor in the 1971 Democratic primary. Few lieutenant governors in Louisiana have been elected directly to the governorship; former Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Lafayette, is a prominent exception.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elections in Louisiana</span> Election system in the American state of Louisiana

The political balance in Louisiana was heavily affected by the post-Hurricane Katrina departure from New Orleans. Heavily Democratic New Orleans lost some 1/3 of its population. The overall effect reduced the Democrats' base of support in the state and turned Louisiana into a Republican-leaning state thereafter. New Orleans remained Democratic, electing Mitch Landrieu as mayor in February 2010. In the 2008 elections, Louisiana sent a mixed result, with the election of U.S. Senator John McCain for President and the reelection of Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu. The other senator, at the time, was Republican David Vitter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Newton Brown Jr.</span> American judge

Henry Newton Brown Jr., is a former Louisiana appellate judge, legal lecturer, and former district attorney. He is serving his third 10-year elected term on the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal, based in Shreveport, having been elected in 1990, 2000, and 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wellborn Jack</span> American politician

Wellborn Jack, Sr., was an attorney from Shreveport, Louisiana, who was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Caddo Parish serving from 1940 to 1964. He finished in sixth place for five at-large seats in the general election held on March 3, 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George W. D'Artois</span> American politician

George Wendell D'Artois, Sr. was an American law enforcement officer and politician in Shreveport, Louisiana, who served as the city's Public Safety Commissioner from 1962 to 1976. D'Artois was investigated more than once for misuse of city funds, and was arrested for his alleged involvement in the 1976 shooting death of Jim Leslie, a Shreveport advertising executive who had managed D'Artois' 1974 re-election campaign. He was released for lack of evidence. A trial on charges of theft of city funds and intimidation of witnesses was postponed several times because of D'Artois's poor health. Arrested again in April 1977 for Leslie's murder, D'Artois died the following month during heart surgery and never went to trial. Histories published in the decades since D'Artois' death state that he was involved with organized crime and had contracted for the murders of both Leslie and Leslie's killer to prevent their testimony before a grand jury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Waggonner</span> American politician

Joseph David Waggonner Jr. was a Democratic U.S. Representative for the 4th congressional district in northwest Louisiana from December 1961 to January 1979. He was also a confidant of Republican President Richard Nixon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean M. Doerge</span> American politician and educator

Jean McGlothlin Doerge is director of the Germantown Colony and Museum in Webster Parish, Louisiana, and a former Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives who represented District 10 from 1998 to 2012. From 2001 to 2006, she served as the vice chair of the House's Commerce Committee; in 2007, she was appointed to the Louisiana House Appropriations Committee, and from 2008 to 2012, she served as the vice chair of the Retirement Committee.

References

  1. ↑ "LA US Senate – D Primary". Ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "O'Hearn Blasts Long's Record in Speech Before Local Group," Minden Herald, November 1, 1962, p. 1.
  3. 1 2 Long advertisement, Minden Herald, November 1, 1962, p. 12
  4. ↑ "LA US Senate". Ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  5. ↑ Minden Herald, November 8, 1962, p. 1
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.