Gerald Long
Encyclopedia
Gerald Long is a rare Republican
member of the traditionally Democratic
Long
political dynasty
in the U.S. state
of Louisiana
. Specifically, he is a third cousin
of the late Governor
s Huey Pierce Long, Jr.
, and Earl Kemp Long. He was elected on October 20, 2007, to the Louisiana State Senate
District 31, which includes Grant and Natchitoches parishes and parts of Rapides, Red River, Sabine, and Winn parishes in the north central portion of the state. Long and State Representative
Rickey L. "Rick" Nowlin
are the first two Republicans since Reconstruction to represent Natchitoches Parish in the Louisiana legislature.
, who switched parties and won four statewide elections as a Republican. Fox McKeithen's father, the late Governor
John McKeithen
, was a leading Long figure in the 1960s and 1970s, but the McKeithens were not relatives of the Longs.
Long and his twin brother, Carroll Long, were the last of eight sons born to Rubin Ray Long (1900–1966) and the former Ruby Smith (1906–1984). Ruby Smith's brother, P.K. Smith
, later an automobile dealer in Winnfield, was a member of the Louisiana House from Winn Parish from 1960 to 1964. P.K. Smith's son, Mike Smith
, served twelve years in the Louisiana State Senate as a Democrat from 1996 to 2008. Term-limited, Mike Smith preceded his cousin, Gerald Long, in the state Senate.
Rubin Long was originally a Winn Parish sharecropper. Long's paternal grandparents were Thomas Jefferson Long (1861–1948) and the former Mary Ella Wright (1864–1902). Gillis William Long
(1923–1985), a former U.S. representative from the defunct Eighth Congressional District of central Louisiana, was also a paternal grandson of Thomas Jefferson Long and hence Gerald Long's first cousin
. An older brother, Jimmy D. Long
(born 1931) served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1968 to 2000 as a Democrat from Natchitoches
. In that capacity, Jimmy Long became known as a leading legislative authority on education
, an area which would also become important in Gerald Long's career as an educator and a motivational speaker. Another brother is Dr. William Jackson "Bill" Long (born 1940), a former planning commission executive in Alexandria
, the seat of Rapides Parish, who was the publisher of "The Louisiana Business Journal" and a former weekly newspaper in Pineville
known as the Red River Journal. Bill Long ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1983. Gerald Long was also a distant cousin of former Pineville Mayor Floyd W. Smith, Jr.
(1932–2010), whose mother was a Long. Floyd Smith spent his later years near his native Winnfield
, the seat of Winn Parish.
in Natchitoches on an football
scholarship. He obtained his bachelor of science
degree in education in 1966, the year of his father's death. For the next four years, Long (1) taught at Houma Junior High School at Houma
in Terrebonne Parish
in south Louisiana and (2) taught and coached at Leesville High School
in Leesville
, the seat of Vernon Parish
in western Louisiana.
Long left teaching to become an insurance
agent, a representative of the State Farm
Company. He is a lifetime member of the President’s Club, which is earned by fewer than 2 percent of insurance agents nationally. While in the insurance business, Long was for nine years a volunteer for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes
at Northwestern State University. FCA, a national organization devoted to college, high school and junior-high students, attempts to instill moral and spiritual values in young people to prepare them for their future. In July 1999, Long retired from business to serve full time as the FCA representative for Rapides, Grant, Winn, Natchitoches, Sabine, and five other parishes.
In the summer of 1966, Long married the former Rose Landry. The couple has three grown children, Andrea Phillips, Pamela Jordan, and Richard Gerald Long (born 1976). They also had eight grandsons as of November 2007.
Long has spoken before schools, civic organizations, churches, and senior citizens organizations. He has also been an interim Baptist
pastor for four churches in the Natchitoches area. He is considered both a fiscal and social conservative.
, a nephew
and law partner of former State Senator Donald G. Kelly
of Natchitoches. Townsend had unseated Jimmy Long in the 1999 jungle primary
for the Louisiana House. Townsend, who ran to the political "left" of Long, did not seek a third term in the House but instead sought the open Senate seat vacated by his cousin, Mike Smith, a businessman in Winnfield. Long procured 20,609 votes (54 percent) to Townsend's 17,699 (46 percent). Long won five of the six parishes in the district, having lost only in Natchitoches, the home of both candidates. He even won in Red River Parish, one of only two north Louisiana parishes that did not support the successful Republican gubernatorial candidate, Bobby Jindal
, in the October 20 primary.
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
member of the traditionally Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Long
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
political dynasty
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. Specifically, he is a third cousin
Cousin
In kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares one or more common ancestors. The term is rarely used when referring to a relative in one's immediate family where there is a more specific term . The term "blood relative" can be used synonymously and establishes the existence of...
of the late Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
s Huey Pierce Long, Jr.
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
, and Earl Kemp Long. He was elected on October 20, 2007, to the Louisiana State Senate
Louisiana State Senate
The Louisiana State Senate is the upper house of the state legislature of Louisiana. All Senators serve four year terms and are assigned multiple committees to work on. The Republicans control the State Senate following a Special Election Victory in District 26 by Jonathan W. Perry...
District 31, which includes Grant and Natchitoches parishes and parts of Rapides, Red River, Sabine, and Winn parishes in the north central portion of the state. Long and State Representative
Louisiana House of Representatives
The Louisiana House of Representatives is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the US state of Louisiana. The House is composed of 105 Representatives, each of whom represents approximately 42,500 people . Members serve four-year terms with a term limit of...
Rickey L. "Rick" Nowlin
Rick Nowlin
Rickey L. "Rick" Nowlin is a Natchitoches engineer and businessman who is a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 23 ....
are the first two Republicans since Reconstruction to represent Natchitoches Parish in the Louisiana legislature.
Long political dynasty
Gerald Long is the only Long family member holding high office in Louisiana. Most Longites remained in the Democratic Party over the years. Another exception was the late Secretary of State W. Fox McKeithenW. Fox McKeithen
Walter Fox McKeithen served five terms as Secretary of State of Louisiana between 1988 and 2005. He is best remembered for merging the state's election divisions into one department and for the promotion of historical preservation.-Son of a governor:He was born Walter Fox McKeithen in Columbia in...
, who switched parties and won four statewide elections as a Republican. Fox McKeithen's father, the late Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
John McKeithen
John McKeithen
John Julian McKeithen was the 49th Governor of Louisiana, serving from 1964 to 1972. A Democrat from the town of Columbia, he was the first governor of his state in the twentieth century to serve two consecutive terms...
, was a leading Long figure in the 1960s and 1970s, but the McKeithens were not relatives of the Longs.
Long and his twin brother, Carroll Long, were the last of eight sons born to Rubin Ray Long (1900–1966) and the former Ruby Smith (1906–1984). Ruby Smith's brother, P.K. Smith
P.K. Smith
Perry K. Smith, known as P.K. Smith , was a businessman from Winnfield, Louisiana, who served a single term in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1960-1964 during the administration of Governor Jimmie Davis. In 1974, Smith and his sons, Kenneth Michael "Mike" Smith and Perry Joe Smith,...
, later an automobile dealer in Winnfield, was a member of the Louisiana House from Winn Parish from 1960 to 1964. P.K. Smith's son, Mike Smith
Mike Smith (Louisiana politician)
Kenneth Michael Smith, Sr., known as Mike Smith , is a businessman in Winnfield, Louisiana, who served as a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1996 to 2008....
, served twelve years in the Louisiana State Senate as a Democrat from 1996 to 2008. Term-limited, Mike Smith preceded his cousin, Gerald Long, in the state Senate.
Rubin Long was originally a Winn Parish sharecropper. Long's paternal grandparents were Thomas Jefferson Long (1861–1948) and the former Mary Ella Wright (1864–1902). Gillis William Long
Gillis William Long
Gillis William Long was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Louisiana and member of the Long family. Long served seven non-consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives but placed third in two campaigns for the Democratic gubernatorial nominations in 1963 and 1971...
(1923–1985), a former U.S. representative from the defunct Eighth Congressional District of central Louisiana, was also a paternal grandson of Thomas Jefferson Long and hence Gerald Long's first cousin
Cousin
In kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares one or more common ancestors. The term is rarely used when referring to a relative in one's immediate family where there is a more specific term . The term "blood relative" can be used synonymously and establishes the existence of...
. An older brother, Jimmy D. Long
Jimmy D. Long
Jimmy Dale Long, Sr. , is a former Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. He represented District 23 from 1968 until 2000, being the "dean" of the Louisiana House when he returned to private life. He is a recognized authority on educational policy. For sixteen years, he...
(born 1931) served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1968 to 2000 as a Democrat from Natchitoches
Natchitoches, Louisiana
Natchitoches is a city in and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the Natchitoches Indian tribe. The City of Natchitoches was first incorporated on February...
. In that capacity, Jimmy Long became known as a leading legislative authority on education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, an area which would also become important in Gerald Long's career as an educator and a motivational speaker. Another brother is Dr. William Jackson "Bill" Long (born 1940), a former planning commission executive in Alexandria
Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
, the seat of Rapides Parish, who was the publisher of "The Louisiana Business Journal" and a former weekly newspaper in Pineville
Pineville, Louisiana
Pineville is a city in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is adjacent to the city of Alexandria, and is part of that city's Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,829 at the 2000 census....
known as the Red River Journal. Bill Long ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1983. Gerald Long was also a distant cousin of former Pineville Mayor Floyd W. Smith, Jr.
Floyd Smith (Louisiana politician)
Floyd William Smith, Jr. , was a businessman from Winnfield, Louisiana, who served as the Democratic mayor of Pineville in Rapides Parish from 1966-1970. He was a maternal second cousin of former U.S. Representative Speedy O...
(1932–2010), whose mother was a Long. Floyd Smith spent his later years near his native Winnfield
Winnfield, Louisiana
Winnfield is a city in and the parish seat of Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census. It has long been associated with the Long faction of the Louisiana Democratic Party and was home to three governors of Louisiana.-Geography:Winnfield is located at ...
, the seat of Winn Parish.
Education, work history
Like his brothers, Long was educated in the Winn Parish public schools. He graduated in 1962 from Winnfield Senior High School and entered Northwestern State UniversityNorthwestern State University
Northwestern State University, known as NSU, is a four-year public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the University of Louisiana System.NSU was founded in 1884 as...
in Natchitoches on an football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
scholarship. He obtained his bachelor of science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in education in 1966, the year of his father's death. For the next four years, Long (1) taught at Houma Junior High School at Houma
Houma, Louisiana
Houma is a city in and the parish seat of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, and the largest principal city of the Houma–Bayou Cane–Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's powers of government have been absorbed by the parish, which is now run by the Terrebonne Parish...
in Terrebonne Parish
Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana
Terrebonne Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Houma. Its population was 111,860...
in south Louisiana and (2) taught and coached at Leesville High School
Leesville High School
Leesville High School is a school located in Leesville, Louisiana, United States. The 9-12 school is a part of the Vernon Parish School Board....
in Leesville
Leesville, Louisiana
Leesville is a city in and the parish seat of Vernon Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 6,753 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Fort Polk South Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city is home to the Fort Polk U.S. Army installation...
, the seat of Vernon Parish
Vernon Parish, Louisiana
Vernon Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Leesville and as of 2000, the population was 52,531....
in western Louisiana.
Long left teaching to become an insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
agent, a representative of the State Farm
State farm
State farm can refer to:*Sovkhoz, a type of state-owned farm in the Soviet Union*Volkseigenes Gut, a type of state-owned farm in East Germany*Państwowe Gospodarstwo Rolne, a type of state-owned farm in People's Republic of Poland...
Company. He is a lifetime member of the President’s Club, which is earned by fewer than 2 percent of insurance agents nationally. While in the insurance business, Long was for nine years a volunteer for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes
Fellowship of Christian Athletes
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a non-profit interdenominational Christian organization founded in 1954 and that has been based in Kansas City, Missouri since 1956. It falls within the tradition of Muscular Christianity. Although established by evangelical Protestants, the concept has...
at Northwestern State University. FCA, a national organization devoted to college, high school and junior-high students, attempts to instill moral and spiritual values in young people to prepare them for their future. In July 1999, Long retired from business to serve full time as the FCA representative for Rapides, Grant, Winn, Natchitoches, Sabine, and five other parishes.
In the summer of 1966, Long married the former Rose Landry. The couple has three grown children, Andrea Phillips, Pamela Jordan, and Richard Gerald Long (born 1976). They also had eight grandsons as of November 2007.
Long has spoken before schools, civic organizations, churches, and senior citizens organizations. He has also been an interim Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
pastor for four churches in the Natchitoches area. He is considered both a fiscal and social conservative.
Election to the state senate
In the 2007 campaign, Long defeated the Democratic State Representative Thomas Taylor TownsendTaylor Townsend (Louisiana politician)
Thomas Taylor Townsend, known as Taylor Townsend , is an attorney from Natchitoches, Louisiana, who served as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 2000-2008. Townsend is a nephew and law partner of former Louisiana State Senator Donald G. Kelly, in the firm Kelly, Townsend &...
, a nephew
Nephew
Nephew is a son of one's sibling or sibling-in-law, and niece is a daughter of one's sibling or a sibling-in-law. Sons and daughters of siblings-in-law are also informally referred to as nephews and nieces respectively, even though there is no blood relation...
and law partner of former State Senator Donald G. Kelly
Donald G. Kelly
Donald Gene Kelly, usually known as Don Kelly , is a prominent trial lawyer and American Quarter Horse breeder in Natchitoches who served as a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 1996. His tenure covered three of the four terms of Democratic Governor Edwin Washington...
of Natchitoches. Townsend had unseated Jimmy Long in the 1999 jungle primary
Jungle primary
A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for elected office run in the same primary regardless of political party. Under this system, the top two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the next round, as in a runoff election...
for the Louisiana House. Townsend, who ran to the political "left" of Long, did not seek a third term in the House but instead sought the open Senate seat vacated by his cousin, Mike Smith, a businessman in Winnfield. Long procured 20,609 votes (54 percent) to Townsend's 17,699 (46 percent). Long won five of the six parishes in the district, having lost only in Natchitoches, the home of both candidates. He even won in Red River Parish, one of only two north Louisiana parishes that did not support the successful Republican gubernatorial candidate, Bobby Jindal
Bobby Jindal
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is the 55th and current Governor of Louisiana and formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is a member of the Republican Party....
, in the October 20 primary.