Career
Cleveland is best known for having been defeated in his bid for a third term in the Louisiana State Senate by fellow Crowley Democrat Edwin Edwards, a lawyer who subsequently served less than two years in that body but in time became his state"s only four-term governor. From 1944 to 1956, Cleveland represented his adopted Acadia Parish in the Louisiana House of Representatives. From 1956 to 1964, he was a state senator for two terms from Acadia Parish.
In the first term, he also represented neighboring Saint Landry Parish.
In 1959, Cleveland was acting governor for a day for the observance in Baton Rouge by the Men"s Goodwill Tour of the 250th anniversary of the founding of Marksville, the seat of government of Avoyelles Parish. He was subsequently an alternate delegate to the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which also met in Chicago to nominate the Humphrey-Muskie slate.
However, the Louisiana electoral votes in 1968 went to George Wallace of Alabama on the American Independent Party ticket.
