A once-prominent and influential Southern Democrat who'd likely no longer be accepted in the current Democratic Party has passed away.

Former U.S. Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA), a pro-business and pro-oil and gas production politician from Shreveport, Louisiana, died on Tuesday at the age of 92, local media outlet KSLA reported.

Also an attorney and later a lobbyist, Johnston served eight years in both chambers of his state's legislature in the 1960s before serving as a senator in Washington D.C. for another quarter of a century before he retired in the mid-1990s.

30-plus-year career in politics

NOLA.com reported that Johnston was born and raised in Shreveport and was a star football player in high school before he attended the West Point Military Academy, after which he also briefly attended Washington and Lee University and then obtained a law degree from LSU.

His three-decade career in politics began when he was first elected to the Louisiana State House in 1964, after which he was elected to the State Senate in 1967, which he used as a springboard for a 1971 campaign to be the governor that fell short in the Democratic primary by less than 5,000 votes.

As Johnston himself would later admit, the loss proved beneficial in that it increased his statewide name recognition and helped him get elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972.

He would go on to win re-election three more times -- the most notable of which came when he won a surprisingly close race against former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in 1990 -- and served a total of 24 years in the U.S. Capitol, until he announced in 1995 that he would retire and not seek re-election in the following year's cycle.

The outlet noted that Johnston was never particularly flashy, nor did he deliver rousing speeches as other politicians from his state tended to do, but instead concentrated on working across the aisle with Republicans to get things accomplished for his constituents back home and the nation more broadly.

An old-school Democrat who would no longer fit in

Roll Call reported that former Sen. Johnston's tenure in the Senate included service on the Appropriations and Budget Committees, but that he will mostly be remembered for his lengthy leadership as either the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

It was in that committee that Johnston played a key role throughout the '70s and '80s in defending and reforming nuclear energy policy, helped deregulate natural gas production, and encouraged increased production of oil and gas as sources of energy to make electricity, along with increased competition in the electricity production market.

Shortly before his retirement in the mid-'90s, the long-serving senator from Louisiana was described as "a rare blend of a Southern social conservative and a loyal liberal Democrat," who supported economic and energy reforms and infrastructure projects but was a former segregationist who opposed gun control, government-run healthcare, and other social justice issues favored by the ideological left.

In short, he was a sort of moderate Democrat who would almost certainly feel ostracized and unwelcome by his own Democratic Party if he were still a politician today.

Politician turned lobbyist

Roll Call noted that following his retirement from the U.S. Senate, Johnston opened a lobbying firm in his name in Washington D.C., and NOLA.com reported that he still lived in the area in Sperryville, Virginia, at the time of his death.

He is survived by his wife, Mary, whom he met while they both attended LSU, along with their four children, including two sons and two daughters plus their spouses, and 10 grandchildren.