term in the Democratic primary election in 1924, having defeated Lee Emmett Thomas, the mayor of Shreveport, 104,312 (54.9 percent) to 85,54 (45.1 percent). Huey Pierce Long Jr., while himself running for a second term on the regulatory Louisiana Public Service Commission spent more time supporting Ransdell for the Senate than he did his own campaign in which he carried all twenty-eight parishes in his district. Long was particularly motivated by his fierce opposition to Mayor Thomas though Long was then a resident of Shreveport. Ransdell was a US senator from March 4, 1913, to March 3, 1931. But in 1930 Governor Huey Long ran in the Democratic primary against him for the seat and won. With 149,640 votes (57.3 percent), Long toppled Randsell, who polled 111,451 (42.7 percent). Long was elected in the general election without Republican opposition. Ransdell had appeared in 1927 at a Long political rally in Lake Providence, where his younger brother introduced Long. District Attorney Jefferson B. Snyder, another long-term advocate of planter interests, sat on the stage. Snyder had not really favored Long so much as he was convinced that Long would defeat his chief opponent, U.S. Representative Riley J. Wilson, the favorite of most planter interests, and Snyder wanted to influence the new governor. At the rally, Huey Long began "a harangue that castigated their closest friends and political allies and the old establishment itself, of which these men were a part." Particularly outraged at Long's treatment of the Randsdells was state Senator Norris C. Williamson of East Carroll Parish, the vice-president of the Constitutional League of Louisiana. He would not compromise with the Longs and retired to private life in 1932, rather than face likely defeat by the Long faction. T. H. Harris, the long-term Louisiana state superintendent of education, called Ransdell "one of the most lovable and distinguished citizens of the United States. [Yet] the people elected Long to the Senate because they believe that he can be of more use to them there. The people trust Long. I find it mighty easy to get on with Governor Long. I have seen the school appropriations increased by $1.9 million during the past two years. .." Ransdell was chairman of the Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses) and a member of the Committee on Mississippi River and Its Tributaries (Sixty-sixth Congress). It was in this capacity that