When the Louisiana voters in 1930 elected Huey Long to the United States Senate, the thirty-seven-year-old dynamo already exercised a tight grip over state politics, built up during his years as governor. Unwilling to relinquish the reins of state power to an unfriendly lieutenant governor, Long delayed claiming his Senate seat until January 1932. The next summer, he employed his charismatic eloquence on behalf of both presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt and his personal choice for the second Louisiana Senate seat, U. S. Representative John H. Overton. Long's strength in Louisiana had no equal, and in the September 13, 1932, primary, John Overton easily defeated incumbent Senator Edwin Broussard for the Democratic nomination, a prelude to an unopposed victory in the general election.
