Robert F. Kennon - A Quick U.S. Senate Campaign, 1948

A Quick U.S. Senate Campaign, 1948

When U.S. Senator John H. Overton died in office, a special election was called to fill the seat for a two-year term extending through January 1951. Fresh from his race for governor, Kennon challenged Russell B. Long, the older son of the legendary Huey Pierce Long, Jr., who not quite thirty was still a few days too young to take office at the time of the election. Kennon said state politics should be "reshuffled after the bad deal" of the Long victory in the 1948 gubernatorial race. He urged "mature representation" in the District of Columbia. The Kennon senatorial platform called for $50 per month old-age pensions, a veterans' housing program, forestry and soil conservation measures, and expansion of the Rural Electrification Administration. He also avowed that as a senator, he would work to "cut red tape" in government operations.

The outcome was close, but Long prevailed, 264,143 (51 percent) to Kennon's 253,668 (49 percent). Long's plurality was hence 10,475 votes. As with the earlier gubernatorial primary, Kennon lost his own Webster Parish in the Senate race against Long, 4,096 to 2,994. Based on the Senate returns, many in the anti-Long faction began to consider Kennon once again as a possible gubernatorial candidate in 1951. Long held the Senate seat without a serious challenge until he announced his retirement, effective January 1987.