NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana finds himself in a tense battle for his political survival as he navigates the Republican primary this Saturday. Facing off against a challenger endorsed by former President Donald Trump, Cassidy is at the center of Trump’s ongoing campaign to expel party members he considers unfaithful.
Trump has thrown his weight behind Representative Julia Letlow in a rare move to unseat a sitting senator. Cassidy’s decision to vote for Trump’s conviction during the latter’s second impeachment trial, following the January 6 Capitol riots, has fueled this rivalry. Cassidy, who is also a physician, has been at odds with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine issues, despite previously playing a pivotal role in securing Kennedy’s confirmation.
Another contender in the race is state Treasurer John Fleming. Should no candidate secure a majority of over 50% of the vote, a runoff is scheduled for June 27.
Given the state’s Republican dominance, the victor of this primary is likely to win the general election in November.
Complicating the election landscape, a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling has disrupted a section of the Voting Rights Act, impacting the redrawing of congressional districts. While the Senate primary proceeds as planned, Louisiana’s leaders have opted to postpone the House primaries to allow time for redistricting, a decision that may lead to voter confusion come Saturday.
A senator tries to hang on
Cassidy has waged an aggressive campaign to convince voters he should not be counted out.
“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 unlikely, but no longer impossible.”
Paul Begue, a 41-year-old in New Orleans who works in the agriculture industry, said he planned to vote for Cassidy. He was bothered by a video of Trump saying Letlow was “as loyal as can be.” For Begue, that was “the final nail in the coffin.”
“I don’t care about her loyalty to President Trump,” he said, adding, “I like elected officials that seem to make their own decisions.”
The senator’s campaign is expected to have spent roughly $9.6 million on advertising through May 16, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. And Louisiana Freedom Fund, a super PAC supporting him, is on track to spend $12.3 million.
By comparison Letlow’s campaign, which launched Jan. 20, has spent roughly $3.9 million, while a super PAC backing her, the Accountability Project, has spent about $6 million since then.
Fleming’s campaign has spent about $1.5 million.
Cassidy and Louisiana Freedom Fund ran ads attacking Letlow within days of her entering the race for supporting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which Trump has tried to root out of the federal government.
Letlow, a college administrator before her election to the House, said she supported DEI while interviewing for the position of president of University of Louisiana-Monroe 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 in a race where he’s on the outs with Trump.
The president targets Cassidy
The senator’s vote in favor of convicting Trump after his 2021 impeachment over the Jan. 6 Capitol siege has shadowed Cassidy throughout his second Senate term.
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 showing her standing alongside the president.
“I know a lot more about Cassidy than I do about her,” Martin said. “But if she’s endorsed by Trump, I’m going to believe that.”
Cassidy steered clear of Trump’s ire last year, supporting Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services despite his public reservations about the nominee’s anti-vaccine views.
Mark Workman, a 75-year-old retired infectious disease physician in the New Orleans suburbs, said he backs Fleming. Had Cassidy “stood up and blocked RFK,” Workman said, he would have supported the senator for taking a strong and courageous stance.
“He had the ability to stop him,” Workman said, “and he was too weak to do that.”
As chair of the Senate health committee, Cassidy has been more publicly critical of Kennedy, including over funding cuts for vaccine development.
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 the Means nomination and blasted Cassidy.
“Hopefully all of the Great Republican People of Louisiana, which I won, BIG, three times, will be voting Bill Cassidy OUT OF OFFICE in the upcoming Republican Primary!” Trump posted on social media.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s decision to postpone the congressional primaries may weigh against Cassidy. It could dampen turnout among voters who are less fervently pro-Trump, Wray said, especially if there is confusion about the schedule.
“Suspending the congressional primaries hurts Cassidy,” she said. “Some people believe the Senate primary is canceled.”
Cassidy complained Friday that the new primary system enacted last year was confusing voters by requiring them to ask for a partisan ballot instead of the previous all-party primary that had been in place. He said some called his office to say they had been unable to vote for him.
“The process that was set up was destined to be confusing,” Cassidy told reporters.
A challenger waited for Trump’s backing
Letlow considered running last year but only entered the race after Trump announced his endorsement in January.
By that time Fleming, a former House member and Trump administration official who was elected state treasurer in 2023, was already in the race as a Trump devotee. But Landry was looking for a better-known 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 U.S. House but died of COVID-19 before he could be sworn in. Letlow ran for and won the seat in a March 2021 special election and was reelected in 2022 and 2024.
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.