Julia Letlow won Louisiana’s Republican Senate primary runoff, defeating state Treasurer John Fleming in a victory that keeps President Donald Trump’s preferred slate on track. The campaign turned on Trump’s push to oust Sen. Bill Cassidy, which set up a high-
For a state that runs on momentum, the last week of Louisiana’s Republican Senate primary felt like it was already written—until the runoff made it undeniable.
Julia Letlow won the Republican primary runoff for the U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana, defeating state Treasurer John Fleming. NBC News projected the outcome. The result keeps Letlow in a strong position heading into November in a state that Trump carried by 22 points in 2024.
The path to the runoff started on May 16. when none of the GOP candidates in Louisiana’s initial primary won a majority of the vote. That failure set off a head-to-head showdown that Trump pushed hard to win—an effort aimed at ousting Sen. Bill Cassidy. Cassidy, a sitting Republican senator, voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
In the first round, Letlow finished first with 45% of the vote, while Fleming placed second with 28%. Cassidy came in third with 25% and did not qualify for the runoff.
With Letlow now advancing, the matchup for November is set: Democrat Jamie Davis, a farmer, easily won the Democratic Senate nomination on Saturday night.
Letlow’s campaign has leaned into the kind of fight Trump supporters have come to expect. She has pledged to be a strong supporter of the president’s policies. framing her Senate bid as a commitment to the “America First agenda.” During a telerally with Trump on Thursday night. Letlow told the president. “I promise you this: When I get to the United States Senate. I will never back down from fighting for your America First agenda.”.
In that same pitch. Letlow described the choice in stark terms: she argued voters were deciding between “a real conservative fighter in the Senate” and “another career politician who does not want to save our country.” She also highlighted support for eliminating the Senate filibuster to help pass the Save America Act. a Trump-backed measure that would overhaul U.S. election laws.
Fleming, meanwhile, tried to claim he was the closest Trump ally in the race. He went after Letlow over her past support for diversity, equity and inclusion policies and foreign aid. Earlier this year. Letlow told NBC News that she reversed her position on DEI after she “saw it for what it was. ” and said she has since been “fighting against it.” Even with that explanation on the record. Fleming’s attacks remained a central thread of the runoff fight.
Trump’s backing helped change the tenor of the race, and it wasn’t only Trump’s involvement that energized Letlow’s push. Letlow also had help on the airwaves from allied super PACs, and her campaign leaned on endorsements from other top Louisiana Republicans.
Gov. Jeff Landry backed Letlow, along with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Rep. Clay Higgins.
Letlow is expected to join the Senate after serving nearly three terms in the House, where she also served on the powerful Appropriations Committee. She first came to Congress in 2021 after winning a special election following the death of her late husband.
Her political story traces back further than this moment: Luke Letlow, a former congressional aide who won a House election in 2020, died of Covid before he was sworn into office.
The runoff victory puts Letlow at the center of a broader effort that began with Trump’s challenge to Cassidy and is now aimed squarely at controlling the direction of Republican leadership in Washington. In Louisiana—a state firmly in Trump’s camp—the question for November may be less about whether the GOP can hold the seat. and more about whether Letlow can match the political stamina that brought her this far.
Julia Letlow John Fleming Louisiana Senate primary runoff Trump-backed Bill Cassidy Save America Act DEI Senate filibuster Jeff Landry Steve Scalise Clay Higgins