Cassidy’s Feb. – After 20 years in Louisiana politics, Sen. Bill Cassidy’s bid for reelection collapsed after a single decision: his Feb. 13, 2021 vote to convict then-former President Donald Trump on impeachment charges tied to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The fallout reshaped
For years, Bill Cassidy was the kind of politician who seemed to measure his moves like a doctor: deliberate, methodical, and focused on outcomes. But in Louisiana, one moment hardened into a memory—and on Saturday night it cost him.
Cassidy’s reelection defeat was sealed after his Feb.. 13. 2021 vote to convict then-former President Donald Trump on impeachment charges that Trump incited the assault by his supporters on the Capitol five weeks earlier.. That vote came just after Cassidy had won reelection with Trump’s endorsement.. The break with Trump did not stay theoretical for long: Trump felt deceived, pushed U.S.. Rep.. Julia Letlow to enter the Senate race in January with his endorsement. and then turned the stakes into a Republican primary upset that ended Cassidy’s campaign.
Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming finished first and second, moving on to the June 27 runoff. Cassidy finished third. His reelection campaign is done; he will serve out the final six months of his Senate term.
“Cassidy’s political career is over,” Ed Chervenak, a political scientist at the University of New Orleans, said on Sunday. Still, Democratic political strategist James Carville put the loss in a different frame, noting, “Two terms in the Senate is nothing to sneeze at.”
The path to Saturday’s result ran through rules built to narrow the field.. Cassidy had to win a closed Republican primary created by Gov.. Jeff Landry that. under the new setup. blocked registered Democrats from voting unless they changed their party registration to no-party or Republican.. The arrangement mattered because Cassidy’s campaign tried to reach moderates on more than one side.
Throughout the race. Cassidy leaned on his record of working with Trump conservatives. saying Trump had signed four pieces of his legislation into law.. He also pointed to his support as a factor in Robert F.. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as health secretary.. At the same time, Cassidy told voters he knew how to work with Democrats to deliver money for Louisiana.
But moderates—both Republicans and Democrats—saw his 2021 decision regarding Kennedy differently. They viewed Cassidy’s vote to confirm Kennedy as a sell-out to Trump, especially given Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccines.
In the end, Cassidy fell short of every lane he tried to occupy. He won only 24.8% of the vote, compared to 44.8% for Letlow and 28.2% for Fleming. Mark Spencer, who called himself a “Guns and Bible conservative,” won 2% of the vote.
For voters tied to Trump’s loyalty, the problem was not just policy. It was betrayal.
“Cassidy betrayed Trump,” Judy said on Saturday outside a polling station at a New Orleans fire house. “I voted for Letlow.”
Cassidy had made a direct pitch for Democrats to switch their registration. But the numbers suggested limited traction: only 7,488 Democrats changed their registration after Feb. 1, out of 401,118 people who voted in the Republican primary.
Jay Dardenne, who preceded Cassidy in the state Senate, described the squeeze in blunt terms.. “Bill obviously got caught in a vise trying to appeal to Trump voters when it was pretty apparent that he was not supported by Trump and trying to appease more moderate voters who were upset by his vote for Kennedy.. That created the scenario that played out yesterday, that he didn’t make the cut,” he said.
Cassidy did not respond to an interview request.
While the statewide outcome ended his bid, his performance varied across the map. John Couvillon, a Baton Rouge pollster who conducted surveys for Fleming, said Cassidy did well in moderate Republican parishes including East Baton Rouge, Jefferson and Orleans.
But Letlow’s strength was concentrated along major corridors.. Couvillon said Letlow “smoked” Cassidy on the Interstate 12 corridor and in the parishes along Interstate 10 west of Baton Rouge.. Chervenak added a pattern of narrowing support: “The more the Republican the region, the worse-off Cassidy did.”
Cassidy’s political rise, and how it met its limit, began long before the impeachment vote became the pivot point.. Cassidy, 68, is a Baton Rouge native.. He earned undergraduate and medical school degrees from LSU and became a liver specialist at the capital city’s charity hospital.. He won election to the state Senate in 2006, then climbed the ladder by winning three terms in the U.S.. House before securing Senate victories in 2014 and 2020.
Over 12 years in the Senate. Cassidy became known as a policy wonk who preferred studying how to reduce health care costs rather than analyzing political angles to make sure he benefited from major decisions.. Reflecting that identity, he preferred to be known as “Dr.. Cassidy” rather than “Sen.. Cassidy.”
Still, he could press advantages when he chose. In the 2014 election, he pounded then-Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, for having voted for President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act five years earlier.
This year, Couvillon framed the decisive difference as the impeachment ballot. “It was the one vote that people would not forget in a Republican primary contest,” he said.
Immediately after the Feb. 13, 2021 vote, Cassidy said he had grown angry at how Trump “lied” about claiming he had won the 2020 election against Biden. Cassidy also said the evidence showed clearly that Trump had incited the attack on the Capitol.
The blowback followed him inside Louisiana. After that vote, the state Republican Party censured him. Cassidy told reporters he believed time would heal the political wounds by 2026.
“He had a comfortable six years ahead of him,” Dardenne said. “It was almost like he decided, ‘I’m going to do what I really believe.’ He didn’t think Trump would win a second term. That was obviously a miscalculation.”
By 2025, that miscalculation had collided with a new reality. After Trump returned to the White House in 2025, Cassidy did everything he could to get back into the president’s good graces, aiming for a working relationship and to get things done for Louisiana, according to people close to him.
Cassidy tried to convince voters he was succeeding. His Senate office even sent out press releases when he merely appeared at events with Trump.
But by the beginning of 2026. private polls suggested many more voters viewed him negatively than positively—an imbalance often treated as a warning sign in political races.. One key date moved past with consequences: Jan.. 14 was the deadline for Cassidy to register as a political independent. which would have enabled him to bypass party primaries and run in the November general election against Republican and Democratic candidates.
Trump endorsed Letlow on Jan. 17, leaving Cassidy stuck running as a Republican.
“That was not coincidental timing,” Dardenne said. He said Cassidy, at the time, believed Trump would steer clear of his race.
As the qualifying period approached in February, political circles increasingly treated Cassidy’s chances as thin, and speculation grew that he might forgo reelection. Even so, he stayed in.
“Unless you’re God’s perfect idiot, the result was predictable,” U.S. Sen. John Kennedy said on Sunday. “Everybody knew a year ago that Bill was in trouble. The president endorsing Congresswoman Letlow was the icing on the cake. I respect him for running anyway.”
On election night at Boudreaux’s Catering in Baton Rouge. the atmosphere looked different from the triumphal nights Cassidy had celebrated in 2014 and 2020.. The crowds were gone.. Only four elected officials were spotted: Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie; Rep.. Foy Gadberry, R-West Monroe; Laura Ventrella, R-Greenwell Springs; and Randy Delatte, Livingston Parish’s president.
Food sat mostly untouched on a buffet table. A bartender offering glasses of celebratory champagne from “Team Cassidy” was asked if she had many takers.
“Only a few,” she said. “Only a few.”
The sequence was tight: Cassidy cast the Feb.. 13. 2021 vote to convict Trump and described evidence that Trump incited the Capitol attack. then Trump’s endorsement shifted the race by backing Letlow in January. and the state’s closed Republican primary rules created barriers for Democrats—after which Cassidy still struggled to win enough support. finishing behind Letlow and Fleming and leaving his campaign unable to recover.
For now, Cassidy’s next months are administrative rather than campaigning. With the June 27 runoff set between Letlow and Fleming, Cassidy’s role will end when he serves out the final six months of his term.
Bill Cassidy Louisiana politics Julia Letlow John Fleming Trump impeachment vote Feb. 13 2021 closed Republican primary Jeff Landry June 27 runoff