new orleans — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy is fighting for his political life in Louisiana’s Republican primary on Saturday as he faces… A challenge Backed by President Donald Trump, it is the latest attempt by the president to purge the party of politicians he considers disloyal.
Trump endorsed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow over Cassidy, in an unusual attempt to unseat the incumbent senator. Cassidy voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, stemming from the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Cassidy, MD, I also clashed With Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine policy, even though he introduced it Critical support To help Kennedy get confirmed.
The third candidate is State Treasurer John Fleming. If no one receives at least 50% of the votes, a runoff will be held on June 27.
The winner is almost certain to win the general election in November due to Republican leanings in the state.
The elections were rushed Recent US Supreme Court decision Destroy part of the Voting Rights Act that affects how congressional maps are drawn. Although the Senate primary is moving forward, Louisiana leaders have made up their mind Delaying the House of Representatives primary elections Until a future date to allow them to bring back the area lines in advance, a shift that could happen Cause confusion For voters on Saturday.
Cassidy waged an aggressive campaign to convince voters that he should not be disqualified.
“Four months ago I would have told you there was no way Cassidy was going to win this election,” said Mary Patricia Ray, who has served as an adviser to Republican and Democratic candidates in Louisiana. “I still think this is statistically unlikely, but it is no longer impossible.”
Paul Page, a 41-year-old from New Orleans who works in the agricultural industry, said he plans to vote for Cassidy. He was upset by a video of Trump saying Letlow was “as loyal as can be.” For Peggy, it was the “final nail in the coffin.”
“I don’t care about her loyalty to President Trump,” he said. “I like elected officials who seem to make their own decisions.”
The senator’s campaign is expected to have spent nearly $9.6 million on ads through May 16, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. The Louisiana Freedom Fund, the super PAC that supports him, is on track to spend $12.3 million.
By comparison, Letlow’s campaign, which launched on January 20, has spent nearly $3.9 million, while the super PAC she supports, the Accountability Project, has spent about $6 million since then.
Fleming’s campaign spent about $1.5 million.
The Cassidy and Louisiana Freedom Fund ran ads attacking Letlow within days of her entering the race to support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which Trump has tried to root out from the federal government.
Letlow, a college administrator before being elected to the House, said she supported DEI while interviewing for president of the University of Louisiana-Monroe in 2020.
The ads, an attempt to cast Letlow as a progressive trying to pass as a conservative, are one way Cassidy is trying to flip the script in a race where he is neck-and-neck with Trump.
The senator’s vote to convict Trump after his 2021 impeachment over the Jan. 6 Capitol siege has cast a shadow over Cassidy throughout his second term in the Senate.
John Martin, a 68-year-old retired engineer in south Louisiana, said he will vote for Letlow because he is still upset by Cassidy’s decision. He waved a flyer from Letlow’s campaign showing her standing next to the president.
“I know as much about Cassidy as I know about her,” Martin said. But if Trump supports it, I will believe it.”
Cassidy avoided Trump’s wrath last year, backing Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services despite his public reservations about the nominee’s anti-vaccine views.
Mark Workman, a 75-year-old retired infectious disease doctor in suburban New Orleans, said he supports Fleming. Workman said that if Cassidy had stood up and stood in Robert Kennedy’s way, he would have supported the senator to take a strong and courageous stand.
“He had the power to stop it, and he was too weak to do it,” Workman said.
As chairman of the Senate Health Committee, Cassidy has been more publicly critical of Kennedy, including on cuts to funding for vaccine development.
Trump blamed Cassidy for the failed nomination of his second choice for Surgeon General, Casey Means, who raised doubts about vaccinating newborns against hepatitis B, a practice Cassidy supports.
Trump withdrew Means’ nomination and criticized Cassidy.
“I hope all the great Republican people of Louisiana, which I won three times over, will vote Bill Cassidy out of office in the next Republican Primary!” Trump posted on social media.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s decision to postpone the congressional primary may weigh against Cassidy. That could reduce turnout among voters who are less supportive of Trump, especially if there is confusion about the timeline, Wray said.
“Suspending the congressional primaries hurts Cassidy,” she said. “Some people think the Senate primaries are canceled.”
Cassidy complained Friday that the new primary system enacted last year was confusing voters by requiring them to request a party-line ballot instead of the previous all-party primaries that were in place. He said some called his office to say they couldn’t vote for him.
“The process that was set up was bound to be confusing,” Cassidy told reporters.
Letlow considered running last year but did not enter the race until after Trump announced his endorsement in January.
By then, Fleming, a former congressman and Trump administration official who was elected state treasurer in 2023, was already in the race as a Trump fan. But Landry was looking for a more prominent competitor, and suggested Letlow to the president.
Letlow had an unconventional and tragic entry into politics.
In 2020, while she was a university administrator, her husband, Luke, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives but He died due to Covid-19 Before he could take the oath. Letlow ran for and won the seat in a special election in March 2021 and was re-elected in 2022 and 2024.
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.