{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Claude Berwick Duval, I
|office=[[Louisiana]] State Senator for <br> Terrebonne and St. Mary parishes
|term_start=1968
|term_end=1980
==Race for lieutenant governor==
In 1963, Duval ran for lieutenant governor on the intraparty "ticket" of former [[New Orleans]] Mayor (and also former Ambassador to the [[Organization of American States]]) deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr. (1912-1964). He was the [[conservative]] balance to the more "moderate" Morrison. In his own race, Duval was pitted against Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock (1915-1987) of neighboring St. Mary Parish, who agreed with Duval on many issues. Aycock was informally paired with [[John J. McKeithen]] in the Democratic runoff though he was actually an independent candidate who made no alliance with any gubernatorial candidate that year. Aycock had the advantage in experience and name recognition.
There was little evidence of "ticket-splitting," where Morrison supporters backed Aycock, or where McKeithen backers chose Duval. In retrospect, all four men had far more in common than otherwise. Duval in fact was arguably as conservative as Aycock, but in central and north Louisiana, voters perceived Duval unfavorably as a Morrison lieutenant. He had also been Morrison's campaign manager in the unsuccessful 1959 election against [[Jimmie Davis]].<ref>''Minden Herald,'' November 30, 1959, p. 13.</ref>
We witness in our major cities looting, theft, burglary, arson, robbery, murder-all, indeed, a fitting tribute to an advocate of violence.<br>
'I call upon all men, the responsible Negro community as well as the white, to face the facts and truth and to dispel from all minds the falsehood and hypocrisy that have been visited upon us by our leaders and the news media. If the men who died in [[World War II]], in [[Korea]], and [[Vietnam]] should return, they would cry out in horror at the eulogizing of a man who. . . aided and abetted the enemies of this nation, who preached disobedience of law and who incited violence and riot.<br>
I know I speak against the tide of overwhelming emotion ... but let the voice of truth be heard in the land. If it is possible, let the voice of reason be heard. Then may the Negro and the white communities join together in a truthful and realistic effort to build a better society.'''</blockquote>
==Duval in the state Senate==
Once in the state Senate, Duval spoke eloquently and for long periods on nearly any topic brought before the body. Some called him the "Cicero of the Louisiana Senate." He was also helpful to colleagues in obtaining office space and other personal favors. In 2006, the state Senate posthumously honored him with the dedication of the Senate building known as "Duval Hall."
After he left the state Senate, Duval's political contributions went mostly to [[Republican Party|Republicans]]. There is no indication, however, that he himself switched parties. Among recipients of his donations were the Ronald W. Reagan presidential campaign, the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, [[Republican Party|GOP]] Congressman William Henson Moore, III, of Baton Rouge, who ran for the [[U.S. Senate]] in 1986, and Democratic and later Republican Congressman Wilbert Joseph "Billy" Tauzin, Jr., of Lafourche Parish]]. Duval's contribution to Moore came in the spring of 1985.
==Family and death== Duval survived his wife, the former Betty Bowman (1914–1985), by only five months. He was survived by a daughter, Dorothy Duval Nelson,, whose husband, Charles Waldemar Nelson (both born 1947), is the former president of the World Trade Center in New Orleans; two grandchildren; his brother, Stanwood Duval (1913–2001); a sister, Catherine Duval Dean (1916–1997) of [[Albuquerque]], [[New Mexico]]; a maternal aunt, Alice Richardson Butler (1910–1995), and a maternal uncle who was his junior in age, Frank D. Richardson (1916–1993), both of St. Joseph in Tensas Parish.
Duval also had two [[nephew]]s, his namesake Claude Berwick Duval, II (born 1955), a prominent Houma attorney, and U.S. District Judge Stanwood Richardson Duval, Jr. (born 1942), an appointee of President [[Bill Clinton]], based in New Orleans. Judge Stanwood Duval, a Democrat, blocked the implementation of the "Choose Life" license plates approved by the state legislature on grounds that the optional plates were in violation of the First Amendment]] to the [[United States Constitution]]. Judge Duval's argument was unanimously reversed in 2005 by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, also in New Orleans. A perfectly divided court denied a petition for rehearing by a vote of eight-to-eight. Judge Duval is clearly to the political left of his late uncle. However, Claude Duval was a strong advocate of the First Amendment but also supported [[abortion]].