Martin, Sr., and Jr., coaxed Gremillion to withdraw from the race, in which Gremillion had run second to Wade Jr. Gremillion's exit hence made Wade Jr. the official Democratic nominee, equivalent at the time to election in overwhelmingly Democratic Louisiana.
The possibility had existed that there would have been no runoffs at all in 1944 if the Long candidate for governor, Lewis Lovering Morgan of Covington in St. Tammany Parish, had decided not to pursue a second primary against Jimmie Davis.