Block, Upload, Automoderated users, edit, move, protect, rollback
57,799
edits
Changes
→Lock on the 8th district
In 1976, an [[Independent]] affiliated with the "Radical Right," [[Kent Courtney]] of Alexandria, ran against Long, but he polled only 6,526 votes (5.8 percent); no Republican filed for the race. Courtney was a brother of Cy David Francis Courtney (1924-1995), a New Orleans lawyer who had been an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in 1959 on the Democratic gubernatorial ticket headed by state Senator [[William Rainach]] of Claiborne Parish. Cy Courtney also ran unsuccessfully for governor of Louisiana as a Democrat in 1967.
In 1976, an [[Independent]] affiliated with the "Radical Right," [[Kent Courtney]] of Alexandria, ran against Long, but he polled only 6,526 votes (5.8 percent); no Republican filed for the race. Courtney was a brother of Cy David Francis Courtney (1924-1995), a New Orleans lawyer who had been an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in 1959 on the Democratic gubernatorial ticket headed by state Senator [[William Rainach]] of Claiborne Parish. Cy Courtney also ran unsuccessfully for governor of Louisiana as a Democrat in 1967.
In 1978, the Republican Robert Henry Mitchell, Jr. (born 1945) of Forest Hill in Rapides Parish, the son of a letter carrier, Robert Mitchell, Sr. (1915-2014), and the former Jane P. Odom (1919-2005),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thetowntalk/obituary.aspx?n=robert-henry-mitchell&pid=171655992|title=Robert Henry Mitchell, Sr.|publisher=''Alexandria Town Talk''|accessdate=July 11, 2014}}</ref> challenged Long in the first ever nonpartisan blanket primary held in Louisiana for congressional elections. The conservative Mitchell, who did virtually no campaigning, polled 20,547 ballots (20.3 percent) to Long's 80,666 (79.7 percent). Mitchell was setting the stage for potentially stronger Republican campaigns in the 8th district in later years, but the terrain was hostile to Republican candidates.
In 1978, the Republican Robert Henry Mitchell, Jr. (born 1945) of Forest Hill in Rapides Parish, the son of a letter carrier, Robert Mitchell, Sr. (1915-2014), and the former Jane P. Odom (1919-2005),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thetowntalk/obituary.aspx?n=robert-henry-mitchell&pid=171655992|title=Robert Henry Mitchell, Sr.|publisher=''Alexandria Town Talk''|accessdate=July 11, 2014}}</ref> challenged Long in the first ever nonpartisan blanket primary held in Louisiana for congressional elections. The conservative Mitchell, who did virtually no campaigning, polled 20,547 ballots (20.3 percent) to Long's 80,666 (79.7 percent). Mitchell was setting the stage for potentially stronger Republican campaigns in the 8th district in later years, but the terrain was hostile to Republican candidates.