Changes

==Background==

==Background==

A native of [[Shreveport]] and a long-time resident of [[Baton Rouge]], Long first won his Senate seat in 1948, when he defeated future governor of Louisiana, [[Robert F. Kennon]] of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]], in the Democratic primary special election to fill the two years remaining in the term of Senator [[John H. Overton]], who died in office. (There was an interim senator, William C. Feazel, a Long supporter.) One day shy of his thirtieth birthday, Long then handily defeated the [[Republican Party|Repubican]] nominee, [[Clem S. Clarke]], a Shreveport oilman and supporter of [[Thomas Dewey]] for president. Leander Perez, a Louisiana political boss from Plaquemines Parish and then the head of the state party central committee, attempted to assign the Democratic designation to Clarke, rather than Long, but he was forced to yield to the powerful Long forces. At the time [[Strom Thurmond]] of [[South Carolina]], not [[U.S. President]] [[Harry Truman]], was the official Democratic presidential nominee in Louisiana and three other former [[Confederate]] states. Had Clarke been permitted to run under the Thurmond and the Dewey banners, it was speculated that he could have defeated Long and sidelined a long political career in the making. Instead, Long ran on the Thurmond and Truman tickets. The Longs endorsed Truman in his successful election against Dewey and Thurmond.  

A native of [[Shreveport]] and a long-time resident of [[Baton Rouge]], Long first won his Senate seat in 1948, when he defeated future governor of Louisiana, [[Robert F. Kennon]] of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]], in the Democratic primary special election to fill the two years remaining in the term of Senator [[John H. Overton]], who died in office. (There was an interim senator, William C. Feazel, a Long supporter.) One day shy of his thirtieth birthday, Long then handily defeated the [[Republican Party|Repubican]] nominee, [[Clem S. Clarke]], a Shreveport oilman and supporter of [[Thomas Dewey]] for president. [[Leander Perez]], a Louisiana political boss from Plaquemines Parish and then the head of the state party central committee, attempted to assign the Democratic designation to Clarke, rather than Long, but he was forced to yield to the powerful Long forces. At the time [[Strom Thurmond]] of [[South Carolina]], not [[U.S. President]] [[Harry Truman]], was the official Democratic presidential nominee in Louisiana and three other former [[Confederate]] states. Had Clarke been permitted to run under the Thurmond and the Dewey banners, it was speculated that he could have defeated Long and sidelined a long political career in the making. Instead, Long ran on the Thurmond and Truman tickets. The Longs endorsed Truman in his successful election against Dewey and Thurmond.

==U.S. Senate==

==U.S. Senate==