Trump backs – President Donald Trump is backing Rep. Julia Letlow against Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana’s Republican primary, blasting Cassidy as “a disloyal disaster” after Cassidy voted to convict Trump in the president’s second impeachment trial. With a Supreme Court de
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy is fighting for his political life in Louisiana’s Republican primary Saturday as President Donald Trump targets him as an example of disloyalty inside the party, while simultaneously trying to unseat an incumbent with an unusual challenge-backed endorsement.
Trump endorsed U.S.. Rep.. Julia Letlow over Cassidy. and he used social media to unload on Cassidy on Saturday morning. calling him “a disloyal disaster” and “a terrible guy.” Trump also criticized Cassidy’s impeachment vote and said “he’s going to get CLOBBERED. ” adding that Letlow is “a winner who will NEVER let you down.”
A third candidate, state Treasurer John Fleming, is also on the ballot. If no one wins at least 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held June 27. The winner is expected to take the November general election because of the state’s Republican leanings.
The fight is being shaped by more than just personalities.. The election has been scrambled by a recent U.S.. Supreme Court decision gutting a part of the Voting Rights Act that affects how congressional maps are drawn.. Even though the Senate primary is moving forward. Louisiana leaders decided to delay House primaries until a future date to allow them to redo district lines ahead of time. a change officials say could cause confusion for voters on Saturday.
Cassidy’s campaign has pushed hard to convince voters he should not be written off.. “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.”
Some voters described a loyalty test they do not want to sit through.. Paul Begue, a 41-year-old in New Orleans who works in the agriculture industry, said he planned to vote for Cassidy.. He said he was bothered by a video of Trump saying Letlow was “as loyal as can be.” For Begue. he called that “the final nail in the coffin.”
“I don’t care about her loyalty to President Trump,” Begue said, adding, “I like elected officials that seem to make their own decisions.”
The money behind the race is already substantial.. Cassidy and Louisiana Freedom Fund. a super PAC supporting him. are expected to have spent about $9.6 million on advertising through May 16. according to AdImpact. with Louisiana Freedom Fund on track to spend $12.3 million.. 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’s campaign has also leaned into an attack line meant to reframe Letlow for Republican voters.. Cassidy and Louisiana Freedom Fund ran ads attacking Letlow within days of her entering the race after her support for 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.. Cassidy’s campaign has used the ads to characterize Letlow as a progressive trying to pass as a conservative—an approach designed to flip the script in a contest where Cassidy is on the outs with Trump.
The shadow of Cassidy’s Trump impeachment vote is central to that pressure. Cassidy voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial stemming from the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. That vote has followed 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. Martin 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.”
Not every voter sees the race the same way, though. Mark Workman, a 75-year-old retired infectious disease physician in the New Orleans suburbs, said he backs Fleming. Workman said he would have supported Cassidy if Cassidy had “stood up and blocked RFK.”
“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 publicly critical of Health Secretary Robert F.. Kennedy Jr., including over funding cuts for vaccine development.. Trump, in turn, blamed Cassidy for the failed nomination of his second choice for surgeon general, Casey Means.. The nomination faced 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.
Last year, Cassidy tried to avoid Trump’s ire on at least one front.. Cassidy supported Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services despite Kennedy’s public reservations about the nominee’s anti-vaccine views.. But that decision did not blunt the broader impeachment and vaccine-policy battles, which have defined Trump’s pressure campaign.
The schedule tension may also weigh on Cassidy. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s decision to postpone the congressional primaries may 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,” Wray said. “Some people believe the Senate primary is canceled.”
Cassidy argued that the new primary system enacted last year created problems for voters.. Cassidy complained Friday that the new primary system was confusing because it required voters to ask for a partisan ballot instead of the previous all-party primary.. He said some people 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.
The race has a separate layer of personal history for Letlow.. She considered running last year but entered the race only after Trump announced his endorsement in January.. Her political path began after tragedy: 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.
Fleming’s entry into the contest also reflects Trump’s influence.. By the time Letlow joined. Fleming—an ex–House member and a 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 suggested Letlow to the president.
What ties together the loudest messages from Trump’s endorsement and the day’s harder logistical questions is the timing: while the Senate primary proceeds. congressional races are postponed to redraw district lines. and Cassidy is simultaneously arguing that the revised voting process is “destined to be confusing. ” even as Trump tries to make Cassidy’s impeachment and health-policy record the decisive issue.
For now. Louisiana Republicans head into Saturday’s vote with three options—Cassidy. Letlow and Fleming—under a cloud of schedule uncertainty. heavy ad spending and a loyalty fight that has made the impeachment vote and vaccine policy look like more than campaign fodder.. If no candidate clears the 50% threshold, the decision will be pushed into a runoff on June 27.
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Louisiana Republican primary Donald Trump Bill Cassidy Julia Letlow John Fleming impeachment trial Jan. 6 Voting Rights Act congressional redistricting Jeff Landry Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Casey Means surgeon general DEI vaccine policy runoff June 27