Julia Letlow is projected to win Louisiana’s GOP Senate runoff, defeating state Treasurer John Fleming and positioning another Trump ally for the next Senate term. Her campaign centered President Donald Trump’s endorsement, coming after Trump faced setbacks el
Saturday night in Louisiana closed with a familiar kind of momentum: President Donald Trump’s handpicked choice came out on top.
The Decision Desk projects that U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow will win the Republican nomination for Senate in Louisiana, defeating state Treasurer John Fleming in a runoff. Letlow made her endorsement from Trump a centerpiece of her pitch. a move that appears to have helped solidify support in a deep-red state.
Letlow and Fleming were fighting to replace Sen. Bill Cassidy, a two-term Republican who finished third in the May 16 primary. Cassidy is now part of the political backstory that gives this runoff its sharper edge. Along with Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Cassidy was one of two GOP incumbents ousted in spring primaries after Trump opposed them. Trump’s push for vengeance in Louisiana followed Cassidy’s 2021 vote to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial.
In the primary, Letlow earned the most votes with nearly 45% support, followed by Fleming at 28% and Cassidy at almost 25%. Because no candidate received a majority, the top two finishers advanced to the runoff.
Now, Letlow’s victory all but ensures another Trump ally will join the GOP’s Senate ranks next year from Louisiana and gives the president an immediate boost with GOP primary voters—especially after Republicans in two states earlier this month rejected his choices in their races for governor.
Trump has been testing that influence in a midterm primary season that began with a burst of victories. He ousted Cassidy, Cornyn, and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, and he defeated Indiana state senators who rejected his calls for redistricting. But in recent weeks. GOP voters have snubbed Trump in other governor primaries—passing over his picks in Iowa and Georgia. His choice in South Carolina was also on track to lose ahead of last week’s primary runoff. Then. in a last-minute. face-saving move. Trump endorsed South Carolina state Attorney General Alan Wilson. who went on to win by more than 30 points.
To press that same theme in Louisiana, Trump held a telephone rally for Letlow on Thursday night. He said he has seen Letlow “tested at the highest level” and that she has “been a fearless champion for the people of your great state, right from the beginning.”
Trump praised Letlow’s vote for his sweeping tax and spending measure last year. touted her support for his immigration enforcement efforts. and said she would back his elections bill that would broadly ban mail-in voting. require voter identification and more. During the rally—lasting about six minutes—Trump called her “fantastic” and said she’s “a warrior. ” adding: “She’s going to do a great job. She’s a warrior.”.
In the GOP runoff, the ideological gap between the two candidates appeared narrow. Fleming. 74. campaigned on his support for a “pro-Trump agenda.” In one ad. Fleming’s campaign touted his time working in the White House during the first Trump administration. said he “opposes liberal nonsense. ” described him as a “MAGA conservative. ” and used the acronym for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Letlow, 45, was already in Congress, first elected in 2021. She won a special election to fill a vacancy created when her husband, Luke Letlow, died from Covid-19 in December 2020, weeks after she won the 5th District House seat but before she took office.
Fleming is a former House member who departed in 2016 to make a failed Senate run, and then served in several roles in the Trump administration, ending as assistant to the president for planning and implementation.
The wider election picture didn’t change Louisiana’s core political arithmetic. Democrats also chose their Senate nominee in a runoff Saturday. Farmer and former state House candidate Jamie Davis defeated Navy veteran and defense contractor Gary Crockett. with Decision Desk projections showing Davis nearly won the primary outright with more than 47% of the vote. while Crockett edged out a third candidate. Nick Albares. by fewer than 300 votes out of roughly 345. 000 cast.
But Louisiana itself isn’t viewed by Democrats as a target this fall. Trump has won the state by more than 18 percentage points three times, and that makes the winner of Saturday’s GOP runoff almost certain to be elected to a full term in November.
This year’s Louisiana primaries were also the first since the state scrapped its previous “jungle primary” system. Voters registered with a party can participate only in their party’s primary and runoff. while unaffiliated voters can choose which primary to vote in. Unaffiliated voters, however, are required to stick with the same party through the runoff.
So for Letlow. the decision in the GOP contest came down to more than campaign messaging—it arrived in the moment Trump’s influence was most directly on display. After setbacks in other races for governor. his endorsement in Louisiana appears to have landed with voters. sending another of his allies toward the Senate seat he helped reshape into a referendum.
Julia Letlow John Fleming Louisiana Senate runoff Bill Cassidy Donald Trump MAGA GOP primary Decision Desk mail-in voting voter identification Alan Wilson