[citation needed] Long was nominated in the summer of 1960 to the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 8th congressional district, and was running unopposed in the general election, but he died before he could take office.

[1] During his career, Long promoted a progressive agenda by expanding school-lunch programs, teacher pay, public-works projects, and minority voting rights.

I finally declared openly and publicly that I would not be [Earl]'s supporter for either office; that I was under lasting obligations to others; that I had done the best I could for my brother, but that I could not and would not undertake to persuade any of the candidates to whom I had given my promise to step aside.

After the abbreviated governorship, with Coleman Lindsey of Minden as lieutenant governor, Long was indicted in New Orleans on charges of embezzlement and extortion.

Long led the party balloting for the second position in state government, but he lost the runoff to J. Emile Verret of New Iberia, the choice of incoming Governor Jimmie Davis.

[citation needed] Had Lewis Morgan not entered the second primary against Jimmie Davis, Long would have become lieutenant governor without a runoff.

In the same campaign, the Long-endorsed candidate for attorney general, state Senator Joe T. Cawthorn of Mansfield, lost to the Davis-backed Fred S.

[7] Long blamed his failure to become lieutenant governor in 1944 on Louisiana Secretary of State Wade O. Martin Jr., a former ally with whom he quarreled for many years thereafter.

In 1957, Long pushed through a new law, taking jurisdiction of insurance and voting machines from the secretary of state's office and setting up two new patronage positions.

After Boucher decided not to run for office in the 1959–1960 election cycle, Long appointed Douglas Fowler of Red River Parish, who held the job for more than 20 years.

"[8] During the second half of his four-year term, Governor Long became close to Margaret Dixon, the first woman managing editor of the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate.

In 1950, Long struck a deal with his intraparty rival, Mayor deLesseps Story Morrison, to return home rule to the Crescent City, which at the time was being virtually governed out of Baton Rouge.

Though Morrison "endorsed" Lafargue, he privately urged his followers to support Russell Long, whom he fully expected to win the race, anyway.

According to Garry Boulard's book, The Big Lie (2001), Long proved instrumental during the 1951–1952 campaign in charges of communism made against gubernatorial candidate Hale Boggs of New Orleans.

Rival candidate Lucille May Grace attacked him publicly, but Boulard believes this was rigged by Plaquemines Parish boss Leander Perez.

In his second race for the office, McLemore ran on a primarily racial segregationist platform, following the ruling by the US Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregated public schools were unconstitutional.

In 1956, Long vetoed funding for the work undertaken by the LSU historian Edwin Adams Davis to establish the state archives.

He appointed another confidante, former legislator Drayton Boucher of Springhill and later Baton Rouge, as interim "Custodian of voting machines" from 1958 to 1959, as he took the responsibility from the Secretary of State.

[12] His loyal lieutenant governor, Lether Frazar of Lake Charles, would have succeeded him as the Louisiana chief executive for some seven months.

Instead, the term-limited Long unsuccessfully sought the lieutenant governorship on a ticket headed by fellow Democrat and wealthy former Governor James A. Noe.

Long was defeated for lieutenant governor in the 1959 primary by the conservative C. C. "Taddy" Aycock of Franklin in St. Mary Parish in south Louisiana.

In the 1959 primary, Long lost a race to Sheridan Garrett, 2,563 to 2,068, for a Winn Parish seat on the Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee.

Senator Russell Long) once joked that one day the people of Louisiana would elect "good government, and they won't like it!"

But, beneath his public persona as a simple, plain-spoken rural Louisianan of little education, he had an astute political mind of considerable intelligence.

Pearce won a special election and also served as commissioner during the administration of the anti-Long Governor Robert F. Kennon of Minden.

The governor encouraged state entomologist Sidney McCrory of Ascension Parish to run against Pearce in the 1956 primary election.

In his last term in office, his wife, Blanche Revere Long (1902–1998), and others attempted to remove him on the grounds of mental instability.

Commentators have speculated that political opposition may have led the effort to prove him mentally incompetent, including his wife, who resented his connection with Starr.

[20] Only a few months after his term as governor expired in 1960, Earl Long ran for the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana's 8th congressional district.