Changes

When he spoke in [[rural]] Marthaville in [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches Parish]], where his great-grandfather had once taught school, Lafargue accused Senator Long of having broken campaign promises from just two years earlier. Specifically, Lafargue claimed that Long failed to work to lower federal income tax rates and to obtain funds to widen U.S. Highway 71 between Shreveport and New Orleans and U.S. Highway 80 from Shreveport to [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]]. Lafargue said that some blacktopping had been undertaken on Highway 71 but no improvements then to Highway 80: "So we have high taxes out of Russell's pledges to work for lower taxes.... We have blacktopping of concrete roads out of his pledges to make them into four-lane highways."<ref name=mns/> Lafargue claimed that the movement of state welfare funds proposed by the Earl Long administration was for "political highway bribes in behalf of Russell Long now and for Long candidates in state elections later.... Most of the people who are supporting Russell are getting something out of it. They've either got their hands in the pot or their heads in the trough."<ref name=mns>{{cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/84373710/|title=Lafargue Says Long Promises Broken|publisher=''[[Monroe News Star]]''|date=June 30, 1950|page=2|accessdate=November 3, 2020}}</ref>

When he spoke in [[rural]] Marthaville in [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches Parish]], where his great-grandfather had once taught school, Lafargue accused Senator Long of having broken campaign promises from just two years earlier. Specifically, Lafargue claimed that Long failed to work to lower federal income tax rates and to obtain funds to widen U.S. Highway 71 between Shreveport and New Orleans and U.S. Highway 80 from Shreveport to [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]]. Lafargue said that some blacktopping had been undertaken on Highway 71 but no improvements then to Highway 80: "So we have high taxes out of Russell's pledges to work for lower taxes.... We have blacktopping of concrete roads out of his pledges to make them into four-lane highways."<ref name=mns/> Lafargue claimed that the movement of state welfare funds proposed by the Earl Long administration was for "political highway bribes in behalf of Russell Long now and for Long candidates in state elections later.... Most of the people who are supporting Russell are getting something out of it. They've either got their hands in the pot or their heads in the trough."<ref name=mns>{{cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/84373710/|title=Lafargue Says Long Promises Broken|publisher=''[[Monroe News Star]]''|date=June 30, 1950|page=2|accessdate=November 3, 2020}}</ref>

Unworried about Lafargue's challenge, Russell Long campaigned little in his reelection bid, but Earl Long took to the stump and made colorful speeches on behalf of his nephew. Russell Long prevailed in the primary, 359,230 to 156,918. Lafargue carried only Plaquemines Parish, with 93.7 percent of the vote. There he held the support of the powerful Judge Leander Henry Perez, Sr. (1891-1969), a leader among the state's former Dixiecrats of 1948, who was unhappy at the time with both Earl and Russell Long.<ref name=peopleskurtz/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QnQbw5EyPREC&pg=PA182&dq=%22Malcolm+Lafargue%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KkzeVKeMMcWuyATjyoG4Ag&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22Malcolm%20Lafargue%22&f=false|title=Race & Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972|author=Adam Fairclough|date=1996|publisher=[[University of Georgia]] Press|location=Athens, Georgia|page=182|isbn=978-08203-3114-0|accessdate=February 14, 2015}}</ref><ref name=gjeansonne/>

Unworried about Lafargue's challenge, Russell Long campaigned little in his reelection bid, but Earl Long took to the stump and made colorful speeches on behalf of his nephew. Russell Long prevailed in the primary, 359,230 to 156,918. Lafargue carried only Plaquemines Parish, with 93.7 percent of the vote. There he held the support of the powerful Judge [[Leander Perez]], a leader among the state's former Dixiecrats of 1948, who was unhappy at the time with both Earl and Russell Long.<ref name=peopleskurtz/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QnQbw5EyPREC&pg=PA182&dq=%22Malcolm+Lafargue%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KkzeVKeMMcWuyATjyoG4Ag&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22Malcolm%20Lafargue%22&f=false|title=Race & Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972|author=Adam Fairclough|date=1996|publisher=[[University of Georgia]] Press|location=Athens, Georgia|page=182|isbn=978-08203-3114-0|accessdate=February 14, 2015}}</ref><ref name=gjeansonne/>

In the general election, Long overwhelmed the Republican Charles Sidney Gerth (1882-1964), a businessman from New Orleans, who had run unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary in 1948 against the state's senior senator, [[Allen J. Ellender]] of Houma in Terrebonne Parish. Long and Ellender were senatorial colleagues from 1948 until Ellender's death in 1972.

In the general election, Long overwhelmed the Republican Charles Sidney Gerth (1882-1964), a businessman from New Orleans, who had run unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary in 1948 against the state's senior senator, [[Allen J. Ellender]] of Houma in Terrebonne Parish. Long and Ellender were senatorial colleagues from 1948 until Ellender's death in 1972.