Cassidy loses – Sen. Bill Cassidy’s third-place finish in Louisiana’s Republican Senate primary ended his reelection bid and underscored his role in advancing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health secretary nomination in February 2025. Cassidy credited Kennedy’s vaccine assurances i
When Louisiana voters sent Sen. Bill Cassidy back to the sidelines, the decision landed with a familiar kind of political consequence: he failed to qualify for a June runoff after winning only about 25 percent of the vote in the state’s Republican Senate primary on Saturday.
Cassidy’s loss closed out what he had been trying to protect. even as the field was led by Julia Letlow. the candidate backed by President Donald Trump.. Cassidy may have finished third, but the vote margin and the runoff rules made the outcome final.. It was also described as the first time since 1944 that an elected senator placed third or worse in a primary.
The Republican senator’s defeat comes after he cast a key procedural vote in February 2025 to advance Robert F.. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for health secretary, a decision Cassidy defended publicly on the Senate floor.. Cassidy. who practiced as a physician. told colleagues he had “the absolute scientifically based understanding that vaccines are safe. ” and argued the administration needed leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services aligned with President Donald Trump’s goals.. “We need a leader at HHS who will guide President Trump’s agenda to Make America Healthy Again. ” Cassidy said in explaining his support.. “Based on Mr.. Kennedy’s assurances on vaccines and his platform to positively influence Americans’ health. it is my consideration that he will get this done.”
Since taking the job, Kennedy has launched what was described as a war on vaccines.. The department’s direction has also shifted sharply: the health secretary has dismantled huge swaths of his department and replaced them with Trump loyalists.. Cassidy, meanwhile, has offered little more than passive criticisms.
The issue resurfaced in Cassidy’s later attempts to explain his role.. He repeatedly refused to acknowledge that he made a mistake by confirming RFK Jr.. Cassidy also admitted that a CDC website had pushed “unsubstantiated links between vaccines and autism. ” a problem he described to CNN’s State of the Union host Jake Tapper. while downplaying the importance of the site and not naming RFK Jr.. as a principal reason for changes to the department’s direction.
Cassidy’s political alignment has been a moving target since then.. He was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial over the Jan.. 6 insurrection, but after that, he appeared to mostly bend over backwards to get on the president’s good side.. Even with that tilt, Trump attacked him as “disloyal” ahead of Saturday’s vote.
The pattern is stark in the sequence of decisions and outcomes: Cassidy’s vote advanced RFK Jr.. in February 2025. the health secretary later launched vaccine-focused changes after taking over HHS. and Cassidy’s own refusal to name RFK Jr.. as central to the CDC direction was followed by a primary defeat that left him outside the June runoff.
Bill Cassidy Louisiana Senate primary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. HHS vaccines Trump Julia Letlow CDC impeachment Jan. 6