Edwin Sidney Broussard Sr. (December 4, 1874 – November 19, 1934) was a United States senator from Louisiana, who served for two terms from March 5, 1921, to March 3, 1933.
Broussard and Sanders both ran again in the 1926 Senate election. The Ku Klux Klan and the Old Regulars rallied against Broussard because of his Roman Catholicism, but with strong support from Louisiana Public Service Commissioner (later Governor) Huey Pierce Long, Jr., Broussard defeated Sanders a second time.[1] In his autobiography, Every Man a King, Long took credit for Broussard's re-election to his second Senate term: "I supported him, and he hasn't a friend in the state who would say that he could have been elected to the Senate in 1926 if it had not been for me."[2]
Broussard supported Long's bid for governor in 1928, but not his run for senator in 1930, which occurred during Long's governorship. Broussard had called upon Long as senator-elect to resign as governor and turn over the office to Lieutenant Governor Paul N. Cyr, a former Long ally turned opponent. Long remained senator-elect for more than a year, however, and did not work well with Broussard as his fellow senator. Broussard even began to praise his former opponent, Sanders, whom Long had helped Broussard to defeat. Long by then considered Broussard "a conservative" in the mold of Sanders and favored the more moderate John Holmes Overton of Alexandria in Rapides Parish as Broussard's Senate replacement.[2] Broussard was denied renomination in the 1932 Democratic primary election as a result of Long's preference; the Long faction was accused of electoral fraud following Overton's victory in the primaries.[1]
After his defeat, Broussard resumed his law practice and tended to the bank and financial affairs in New Iberia, where he died in 1934 and is interred there at St. Peter's Cemetery.[1] He was a member of The Boston Club of New Orleans.[3]
Personal life
On June 5, 1904, Broussard married Marie Clair Patout. The couple had six children.[1]