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In addition to his oil holdings, Clarke was the federal postmaster in Shreveport from 1926 to 1930 during the administrations of [[U.S. President]]s [[Calvin Coolidge]] and [[Herbert Hoover]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/LA/ofc/shreveport.html|title=Postmasters at Shreveport (1838-1972)|publisher=The Political Graveyard|accessdate=February 10, 2015}}</ref> He was an alternate delegate to the 1948 [[Republican National Convention]] in [[Philadelphia]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/clarke.html|title=Clarke, Clem S.|publisher=The Political Graveyard|accessdate=February 9, 2015}}</ref> which nominated [[Governor]] [[Thomas E. Dewey]] of New York and Governor [[Earl Warren]] of California to challenge, respectively, President [[Harry Truman]] and [[U.S. Senator]] [[Alben W. Barkley]] of [[Kentucky]] for vice president. Benedum encouraged his fellow Republican Clarke to run in the [[special election]] for the two-year seat in the U.S. Senate created by the death of the [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] John H. Overton.

In addition to his oil holdings, Clarke was the federal postmaster in Shreveport from 1926 to 1930 during the administrations of [[U.S. President]]s [[Calvin Coolidge]] and [[Herbert Hoover]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/LA/ofc/shreveport.html|title=Postmasters at Shreveport (1838-1972)|publisher=The Political Graveyard|accessdate=February 10, 2015}}</ref> He was an alternate delegate to the 1948 [[Republican National Convention]] in [[Philadelphia]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/clarke.html|title=Clarke, Clem S.|publisher=The Political Graveyard|accessdate=February 9, 2015}}</ref> which nominated [[Governor]] [[Thomas E. Dewey]] of New York and Governor [[Earl Warren]] of California to challenge, respectively, President [[Harry Truman]] and [[U.S. Senator]] [[Alben W. Barkley]] of [[Kentucky]] for vice president. Benedum encouraged his fellow Republican Clarke to run in the [[special election]] for the two-year seat in the U.S. Senate created by the death of the [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] John H. Overton.

Clarke was the first Republican Senate candidate since from Louisiana since [[Reconstruction]], at which time senators were chosen by state legislatures. He could not overcome Louisiana's strong Democratic hegemony and the failure of the Dewey-Warren ticket to defeat Truman-Barkley or of the Republicans to retain their two-year majority in the U. S. Senate. Clarke was hence handily defeated by Russell Long, who just short of his thirtieth birthday was making the first of his seven successful Senate races, the first having been for the two-year term. Long had won the Democratic nomination over subsequent Governor [[Robert F. Kennon]] of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]] in Webster Parish. In the general election, Long polled 306,337 votes  (75 percent) to Clarke's 102,339 (25 percent). Clarke outpolled Dewey in Louisiana by thirty thousand votes.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, U.S. Senate election returns, November 2, 1948.</ref> Clarke received some 97,000 more votes than did Harrison Garey Bagwell, Sr. (1913-1973), an [[attorney]] from Baton Rouge, who on April 22, 1952, polled just 4 percent of the gubernatorial vote in his general election race against Robert Kennon, who had won the Democratic nomination in a runoff election against Kennon's fellow judge, Carlos Gustave Spaht, Sr. (1906-2001) of Baton Rouge.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=PCUXAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=Harrison+G.+Bagwell#v=onepage&q=Harrison%20G.%20Bagwell&f=false|title=United States Gubernatorial Elections, 1932-1952: The Official Results by State and County|pages=103–104|publisher=McFarland and Company|location=Jefferson, [[North Carolina]]|isbn=978-0-7864-7034-1|author=Michael J. Dubin|accessdate=January 6, 2015|date=March 17, 2014}}</ref>

Clarke was the first Republican Senate candidate since from Louisiana since [[Reconstruction]], at which time senators were chosen by state legislatures. He could not overcome Louisiana's strong Democratic hegemony and the failure of the Dewey-Warren ticket to defeat Truman-Barkley or of the Republicans to retain their two-year majority in the U. S. Senate. Clarke was hence handily defeated by Russell Long, who just short of his thirtieth birthday was making the first of his seven successful Senate races, the first having been for the two-year term. Long had won the Democratic nomination over subsequent Governor [[Robert F. Kennon]] of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]] in Webster Parish. In the general election, Long polled 306,337 votes  (75 percent) to Clarke's 102,339 (25 percent). Clarke outpolled Dewey in Louisiana by thirty thousand votes.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, U.S. Senate election returns, November 2, 1948.</ref> Clarke received some 97,000 more votes than did [[Harrison Bagwell]], an [[attorney]] from Baton Rouge, who on April 22, 1952, polled just 4 percent of the gubernatorial vote in his general election race against Robert Kennon, who had won the Democratic nomination in a runoff election against Kennon's fellow judge, Carlos Gustave Spaht, Sr. (1906-2001) of Baton Rouge.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=PCUXAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=Harrison+G.+Bagwell#v=onepage&q=Harrison%20G.%20Bagwell&f=false|title=United States Gubernatorial Elections, 1932-1952: The Official Results by State and County|pages=103–104|publisher=McFarland and Company|location=Jefferson, [[North Carolina]]|isbn=978-0-7864-7034-1|author=Michael J. Dubin|accessdate=January 6, 2015|date=March 17, 2014}}</ref>

In his Senate campaign, Clarke faced opposition from two Democratic tickets: (1) the  Truman-Barkley national slate, placed on the ballot through a special session of the state legislature, and (2) the official state party line taken that year by [[Strom Thurmond]], then a [[Segregation|segregationist]] governor of [[South Carolina]] and later an eight-term member of the U.S. Senate. Thurmond switched allegiance in 1964 from the Democrats to the Republicans to support [[Barry  Goldwater]] over President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. Clarke considered the two opposing Long slates "illegal". Though no such situation of this kind had been undertaken previously in Louisiana,  candidates in New York could then and still may combine their general election votes from rival party slates. Clarke sued to prevent the Truman-Thurmond slates from both offering Russell Long as their senatorial nominees, but the appeals court declined to hear the case.<ref name=interview/><ref>Billy Hathorn, ''The Republican Party in Louisiana, 1920-1980'',  ([[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]]: [[Northwestern State University]], 1980), p. 49</ref>​

In his Senate campaign, Clarke faced opposition from two Democratic tickets: (1) the  Truman-Barkley national slate, placed on the ballot through a special session of the state legislature, and (2) the official state party line taken that year by [[Strom Thurmond]], then a [[Segregation|segregationist]] governor of [[South Carolina]] and later an eight-term member of the U.S. Senate. Thurmond switched allegiance in 1964 from the Democrats to the Republicans to support [[Barry  Goldwater]] over President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. Clarke considered the two opposing Long slates "illegal". Though no such situation of this kind had been undertaken previously in Louisiana,  candidates in New York could then and still may combine their general election votes from rival party slates. Clarke sued to prevent the Truman-Thurmond slates from both offering Russell Long as their senatorial nominees, but the appeals court declined to hear the case.<ref name=interview/><ref>Billy Hathorn, ''The Republican Party in Louisiana, 1920-1980'',  ([[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]]: [[Northwestern State University]], 1980), p. 49</ref>​