{{Short description|American politician (1874–1934)}} {{Use American English|date=September 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Edwin S. Broussard |image = File:BROUSSARD, EDWIN S. SENATOR LCCN2016860963 (3x4a).jpg |jr/sr = United States Senator |state = [[Louisiana]] |term_start = March 4, 1921 |term_end = March 3, 1933 |predecessor = [[Edward James Gay (1878–1952)|Edward J. Gay]] |successor = [[John H. Overton]] |birth_date = {{birth date|1874|12|04|mf=yes}} |birth_place = [[Loreauville, Louisiana]], U.S. |death_date = {{death date and age|1934|11|19|1874|12|04|mf=yes}} |death_place = [[New Iberia, Louisiana]], U.S. |resting_place=St. Peter's Cemetery,<br />New Iberia, Louisiana, U.S. |party = [[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|Progressive]]<br />[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] |spouse = {{marriage|Marie Patout<br />|1904|1934}} |children = 6 |alma_mater = [[Tulane University Law School]] |relatives = [[Robert F. Broussard]] (brother) }} '''Edwin Sidney Broussard Sr.''' (December 4, 1874 &ndash; November 19, 1934) was a [[United States Senate|United States senator]] from [[Louisiana]], who served for two terms from March 5, 1921, to March 3, 1933.

==Early life== Broussard was born in the village of [[Loreauville, Louisiana]] on December 4, 1874, to Jean Dorville Broussard, and his wife Anastasie Elizadie Gonsoulin Broussard. He attended [[Public school (government funded)|public schools]] in [[Louisiana]]. He graduated in 1896 from the [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]]. He taught for two years thereafter in the public schools of Iberia and [[St. Martin Parish|St. Martin]] parishes.<ref name="bio">"Edwin Sidney Broussard", ''[https://www.lahistory.org/resources/dictionary-louisiana-biography/dictionary-louisiana-biography-b/ A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography]'', Vol. 1 (1988), Louisiana Historical Association publication, pp. 113–14.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>

==Career== At the outbreak of the [[Spanish–American War]], Broussard volunteered for the [[United States Army]]. A [[Captain (United States)|captain]] in [[Cuba]], in 1898 and 1899, he accompanied the [[Taft Commission]] to the [[Philippine Islands]] in 1899 and served as an assistant secretary. He returned to the United States in 1900 and graduated the next year from the [[Tulane University Law School]] in [[New Orleans]]. In 1901, he was admitted to the [[bar (law)|bar]] and established his practice in [[New Iberia, Louisiana|New Iberia]], the Iberia Parish [[County seat|seat of government]].<ref name=bio/>

Broussard was [[prosecuting attorney]] for the Louisiana 19th Judicial District from 1903 to 1908. Between 1914 and 1916, he was affiliated with [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s [[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|Progressive Party]]. Broussard opposed the "[[Regular Democratic Organization|Old Regulars]]," the New Orleans Democratic [[political machine]]. Broussard ran unsuccessfully in 1916 for [[Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana|lieutenant governor]] on an intra-party Progressive [[Ticket (politics)|ticket]] with [[governor of Louisiana|gubernatorial]] candidate [[John M. Parker]], another Roosevelt loyalist.<ref name=bio/>

In 1920, Broussard defeated [[Conservative (politics)|conservative]] former Governor [[Jared Y. Sanders, Sr.|Jared Y. Sanders, Sr]] to win the [[United States Senate|senate]] seat vacated two years earlier by his late brother, U. S. Senator [[Robert F. Broussard]]. Broussard opposed [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] and introduced legislation that sought to exclude beer and wine from the [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution]]. He supported the sugar [[tariff]] and federal [[flood control]] projects important to his state.

Broussard and Sanders both ran again in the [[1926 United States Senate election in Louisiana|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 Commission]]er (later Governor) [[Huey Pierce Long, Jr.]], Broussard defeated Sanders a second time.<ref name="bio" /> 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."<ref name="hpl">[[Huey Pierce Long, Jr.]], ''Every Man a King: The Autobiography of Huey P. Long'' ([[New Orleans]]: National Book Club, Inc., 1933), pp. 256-257.</ref>

Broussard supported Long's [[1928 Louisiana gubernatorial election|bid for governor in 1928]], but not his [[1930 United States Senate election in Louisiana|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 H. Overton|John Holmes Overton]] of [[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]] in [[Rapides Parish, Louisiana|Rapides Parish]] as Broussard's Senate replacement.<ref name="hpl" /> Broussard was denied renomination in the 1932 Democratic [[Partisan primary|primary election]] as a result of Long's preference; the Long faction was accused of [[electoral fraud]] following Overton's victory in the primaries.<ref name="bio" />

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.<ref name=bio/> He was a member of [[The Boston Club]] of New Orleans.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu09362126&seq=304 | title=History of the Boston club, organized in 1841, by Stuart O. Landry }}</ref>

==Personal life== On June 5, 1904, Broussard married Marie Clair Patout. The couple had six children.<ref name=bio/>

{{Portal bar|United States|Politics|Law|Education|Business and Economics|Christianity}}

==References== {{reflist}} * {{CongBio|B000895}} Retrieved on May 18, 2009

==External links== * {{Commons category-inline|Edwin S. Broussard}}

{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=[[Edward James Gay (1878–1952)|Edward James Gay]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[United States Senator|U.S. Senator]] from [[Louisiana]]<br />([[Classes of United States senators|Class 3]])|years=[[1920 United States Senate election in Louisiana|1920]], [[1926 United States Senate election in Louisiana|1926]]}} {{s-aft|after=[[John H. Overton]]}} {{s-par|us-sen}} {{U.S. Senator box | state=Louisiana | class=3 | before=[[Edward James Gay (1816–1889)|Edward James Gay]] | after=[[John H. Overton]] | alongside=[[Joseph E. Ransdell]], [[Huey Pierce Long, Jr.]] | years=1921&ndash;1933}} {{s-end}}

{{USSenLA}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Broussard, Edwin S.}} [[Category:1874 births]] [[Category:1934 deaths]] [[Category:United States Army soldiers]] [[Category:American military personnel of the Spanish–American War]] [[Category:People from New Iberia, Louisiana]] [[Category:Louisiana State University alumni]] [[Category:Louisiana lawyers]] [[Category:Tulane University Law School alumni]] [[Category:Educators from Louisiana]] [[Category:Bankers from Louisiana]] [[Category:Cajun people]] [[Category:Democratic Party United States senators from Louisiana]] [[Category:Louisiana Democrats]] [[Category:Louisiana Progressives (1912)]] [[Category:Huey Long]] [[Category:People from Iberia Parish, Louisiana]] [[Category:20th-century United States senators]]