Huey Long Assassinated, Ending "Share Our Wealth" Challenge to Both Corporate Power and New Deal Moderation

Louisiana Senator Huey P. Long dies on September 10, 1935, two days after being shot by Dr. Carl Weiss in the Louisiana State Capitol, ending the most significant populist challenge to both concentrated wealth and New Deal moderation. Long’s “Share Our Wealth” movement, which he founded in 1934, claimed 7.5 million members in 27,000 clubs nationwide by 1935, promising to cap personal fortunes at $50 million and redistribute the excess to guarantee every American family a minimum income, free education, and a homestead. Roosevelt privately acknowledged that Long represented his most dangerous political threat, a demagogue who attacked the New Deal from the left as insufficiently radical.

Long had built a political machine in Louisiana based on genuine improvements in roads, schools, and public services—funded by taxes on Standard Oil and other corporations—while also ruthlessly crushing political opposition and concentrating power in his own hands. His presidential ambitions terrified both the corporate establishment and Roosevelt administration: internal Democratic polling suggested Long running as a third-party candidate in 1936 could draw enough votes to throw the election to Republicans. Some historians argue that the 1935 “Second New Deal” legislation—Social Security, Wagner Act, Revenue Act wealth tax—represented Roosevelt’s response to Long’s populist pressure from the left.

Long’s assassination removes the most prominent national voice demanding fundamental redistribution of wealth, allowing the New Deal coalition to consolidate around more moderate reforms acceptable to business interests. The “Share Our Wealth” movement rapidly disintegrates after Long’s death, its energy absorbed into the Democratic Party’s 1936 campaign. Long’s legacy remains contested: to supporters, he represented genuine popular opposition to plutocracy; to critics, including many progressives, he embodied the authoritarian potential of American populism. His assassination eliminates a figure who, whatever his authoritarian tendencies, posed the most serious political challenge to concentrated corporate wealth during the Depression era.