NEW ORLEANS (AP) – U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy is fighting for his political life in Louisiana’s Republican primary Saturday as he faces a challenge endorsed by President Donald Trump, the president’s latest attempt to purge the party of politicians he sees as disloyal.
Trump endorsed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow over Cassidy, in an unusual attempt to oust a sitting senator. Cassidy voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, stemming from the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Cassidy, a physician, crashed too with Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine policy, even though he gave crucial support to help get Kennedy confirmed.
The president fired at Cassidy on Saturday morning, calling him “a disloyal disaster” and “a terrible guy” on social media. Trump criticized the senator’s impeachment vote and said “he will be disappointed,” adding that Letlow is “a winner who will never let you down.”
A third candidate is state Treasurer John Fleming. If no one receives at least 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held on June 27.
The winner will almost certainly take the November general election because of the state’s Republican leanings.
The election was disturbed by a recent US Supreme Court decision repealing a portion of the Voting Rights Act that affects congressional redistricting. Although the Senate primary is moving forward, Louisiana leaders decided to do just that delay the primary elections of the Chamber until a future date to allow them to redraw district lines ahead of time, a change that could cause confusion for voters on Saturday.
A senator tries to stay
Cassidy has waged an aggressive campaign to convince voters that he should not be counted.
“Four months ago I would have told you it’s impossible for Cassidy to win this,” said Mary-Patricia Wray, who has consulted for Republican and Democratic candidates in Louisiana. “I still think it’s statistically improbable, but not improbable anymore.”
Paul Begue, a 41-year-old New Orleans man who works in the agriculture industry, said he planned to vote for Cassidy. He was annoyed by a video of Trump saying Letlow was “as loyal as can be”. For Begue, this was “the final nail in the coffin”.
“I don’t care about her loyalty to President Trump,” he said, adding, “I like elected officials who seem to make their own decisions.”
The senator’s campaign is expected to have spent roughly $9.6 million on ads through May 16, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. And the Louisiana Freedom Fund, a super PAC that supports it, is on track to spend $12.3 million.
By comparison, Letlow’s campaign, which launched on Jan. 20, has spent roughly $3.9 million, while a super PAC supporting him, the Accountability Project, has spent about $6 million since then.
Fleming’s campaign has spent about $1.5 million.
Cassidy and the Louisiana Freedom Fund released ads attacking Letlow in the days after she entered the race supporting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that Trump has tried to strip from the federal government.
Letlow, a college administrator before her election to the House, said she supported DEI while interviewing for the University of Louisiana-Monroe president’s position in 2020.
The ads, an attempt to characterize Letlow as a progressive trying to pass as a conservative, are one way Cassidy is trying to flip the script on a race where he’s tied with Trump.
The president targets Cassidy
The senator’s vote to impeach Trump after his impeachment in 2021 for the Jan. 6 Capitol siege has overshadowed Cassidy during his second term in the Senate.
John Martin, a 68-year-old retired engineer in south Louisiana, said he would vote for Letlow because he was still upset by Cassidy’s decision. He waved a flyer from Letlow’s campaign that showed him standing alongside the president.
“I know a lot more about Cassidy than I do about him,” Martin said. “But if she’s endorsed by Trump, I’ll believe that.”
Cassidy avoided Trump’s ire last year by endorsing Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services despite his public reservations about the candidate’s anti-vaccine views.
Mark Workman, a 75-year-old retired infectious disease doctor in suburban New Orleans, said he supports Fleming. Had Cassidy “stood up and blocked RFK,” Workman said, he would have supported the senator for taking a strong and courageous stand.
“He had the ability to stop it,” Workman said, “and he was too weak to do it.”
As chairman of the Senate health committee, Cassidy has been more publicly critical of Kennedy, including cuts to vaccine development funding.
Trump blamed Cassidy for the failed nomination of his second choice for surgeon general, Casey Means, who raised doubts about vaccinating newborns for hepatitis B, a practice Cassidy supports.
Trump withdrew Means’ nomination and attacked Cassidy.
“Hopefully all the great Republican people of Louisiana, which I won, BIG, three times, will vote for Bill Cassidy NOT LAST in the next Republican primary!” Trump posted on social networks.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s decision to postpone the congressional primaries could weigh against Cassidy. It could reduce turnout among voters who are less pro-Trump, Wray said, especially if there is confusion about the schedule.
“The suspension of the congressional primaries hurts Cassidy,” she said. “Some people believe the Senate primaries have been canceled.”
Cassidy complained Friday that the new primary system adopted last year was confusing voters by asking them to look for a partisan ballot instead of the previous all-party primary. He said some called his office to say they hadn’t been able to vote for him.
“The process that was created was meant to be confusing,” Cassidy told reporters.
A challenger received Trump’s endorsement
Letlow considered running last year, but entered the race only after Trump announced his endorsement in January.
At the time, Fleming, a former House member and Trump administration official who was elected state treasurer in 2023, was already in the running as a Trump loyalist. But Landry was looking for a more popular challenger, and he suggested Letlow to the president.
Letlow had an unconventional and tragic entry into politics.
In 2020, while she was a college administrator, her husband Luke was elected to the US House of Representatives, but died of COVID-19 before he can swear. Letlow ran for and won the seat in the March 2021 special election and was re-elected in 2022 and 2024.
By THOMAS BEAUMONT and JACK BROOK Associated Press
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
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