Huey Long: "King Fish" of Louisiana

One of the more colorful figures in American political history Huey Long is remembered for his domination of power in Louisiana while Governor of the state and who later became a U.S. Senator.
He was born on August 30 1893 in Winnfield, Louisiana and got his education at the University of Oklahoma and Tulane. He became a lawyer by trade and was practicing in Shreveport when he managed to get himself elected Louisiana railroad Commissioner by 1918 where he served for 8 years. By 1928 he ran for Governor and won. He built roads, bridges and schools but his influence was total and charges of corruption were always in the air. In 1929 there was a move to impeach him on charges of bribery but the case was eventually dropped.
During the Great Depression he put forth a program of wealth redistribution which won him great support among the working class. His program would give every family a minimum income of $5000 a year by limiting the maximum incomes of the wealthy to 1 million dollars a year and redistributing those funds.
By 1930, he had an iron grip on politics in his home state and he began to look to Washington for even more power. He became elected to the U.S. Senate and went to Washington to take his seat only after leaving behind a hand picked successor for Governor that he controlled.
In 1932 Long supported President Franklin Roosevelt for re-election as President. Once F.D.R. won his second term Long felt slighted by him and his lack of patronage towards him and so he began to battle openly in the Senate against Roosevelt's new deal policies.
By 1935 there was talk about a possible presidential run by him and others who supported him and he was gearing up to do that when he was suddenly shot to death by the relative of a political rival on September 10th of that year. He had just turned 42.