Louisiana Senate Primary Could Unseat Sitting Senator
Trump seeks to defeat Senator Bill Cassidy in Louisiana's Republican primary through his endorsement of Rep. Julia Letlow in a test of Trump's ability to unseat fellow Republicans.
Objective Facts
President Donald Trump is looking to defeat Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy five years after Cassidy voted to convict him in his second impeachment, backing Rep. Julia Letlow against Cassidy, though Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming has run a spirited race making a June 27 runoff likely. Cassidy was one of seven Senate Republicans to vote to convict Trump for incitement of insurrection during his second impeachment trial. Louisiana eliminated the top-two Louisiana primary system in favor of partisan primaries in elections for Congress, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Public Service Commission, and the Supreme Court, with the law taking effect beginning with the 2026 elections. Cassidy—a physician—has had tension with Trump as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, voting to confirm Trump's health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. but splitting with the administration on other parts of its "Make America Healthy Again" agenda.
Left-Leaning Perspective
Left-leaning coverage of this race has been limited in national outlets, but progressive Louisiana journalist Robert Mann noted Cassidy's unusual strategy of appealing to Democrats. Mann reported that Cassidy reached out to him early in May 2026 to make the case that Democrats should consider leaving their party to vote for him because the winner of the GOP primary is all but certain to win in what is now a reliably red state. This represents a notable leftward outreach by a Republican in a deep-red state, acknowledging Democrats' diminished power in Louisiana politics. Most national liberal coverage has focused on the broader theme of Trump's "revenge politics" against dissident Republicans. Al Jazeera noted that even as polls have shown the president's approval tanking, early primary votes have shown the continued weight his endorsement carries. The coverage treats Cassidy's impeachment vote as constitutionally defensible, with Cassidy's original rationale being that his oath to the Constitution took precedence over party loyalty. Left-leaning outlets have largely treated this as a within-Republican contest with limited direct commentary, as Louisiana is not competitive for Democrats in the general election. Coverage tends to emphasize the test of Trump's power within the GOP rather than defending Cassidy's specific record or choices.
Right-Leaning Perspective
Trump and his allies, including Republican Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana, are backing GOP Rep. Julia Letlow in the Senate primary. Fox News extensively covered Letlow's response to Cassidy's attacks on her past DEI work. In an appearance on Fox News Radio, Letlow said that DEI "six years ago was introduced in higher education as something that could be a tool to encourage students, staff, faculty to work hard and go achieve the American dream," but "I quickly witnessed the left completely hijack any of those efforts and turn it into indoctrination of our students, Marxism, holding people down instead of lifting them up". Conservative media emphasized the loyalty question as central to the race. The primary is the latest test of Trump's endorsements in GOP nomination races and of the president's immense grip over the Republican Party. Trump directly attacked Cassidy's record, with Trump posting on Truth Social that "Bill Cassidy is a sleazebag, a terrible guy, who is BAD FOR LOUISIANA," adding "Now he's going to get CLOBBERED, hopefully, in today's BIG election, by two great people!!" The Wall Street Journal was cited as framing the race as "Trump's Big Midterms Gamble." Right-wing coverage presented Cassidy's impeachment vote and his vaccine skepticism toward Kennedy as disqualifying betrayals of party loyalty. The focus was on whether Trump's endorsement could overcome incumbency advantage and Cassidy's substantial fundraising.
Deep Dive
Louisiana made seismic changes to its electoral system beginning with the 2026 elections, eliminating the top-two "jungle primary" that had been implemented in 1978 in favor of closed partisan primaries. This change is critical to understanding why Cassidy faces such peril despite his previous dominance. Cassidy's victories in both previous state-wide Senate elections were under an open election system that enabled him to attract support from voters regardless of their party registration, but this change to semi-closed primaries created a vulnerability for Cassidy given that he could no longer rely on moderate voters. Additionally, Gov. Jeff Landry, who is backing Letlow, signed legislation changing state primaries from "jungle," all-party races to more traditional party primaries ahead of Cassidy's race. This timing and structural change raises questions about whether the primary rule change was designed to disadvantage an incumbent known to rely on cross-party support. For many Republican primary voters, Cassidy's impeachment vote was never seen as a disagreement over policy or constitutional principle but instead was viewed as a direct repudiation of Trump himself, and everything Cassidy has done since then has been filtered through that perception. Despite Cassidy vastly outspending the rest of the field, financial strength matters less in a race defined more by Trump loyalty than persuasion, and Cassidy is probably reserving a significant portion of that money for the runoff and general election. The race demonstrates a fundamental challenge for Republican incumbents who broke with Trump over January 6: most of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict President Trump after the January 6th insurrection have retired, but Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana—he is running for reelection, testing whether any such senator can survive in a Trump-dominated GOP. The primary is also a test for allies of Kennedy, the health secretary, with a group associated with Kennedy's agenda, MAHA PAC, spending six figures opposing Cassidy and supporting Letlow. The outcome remains uncertain due to Fleming's presence as a stubborn force in the race, complicating Trump's revenge plot and making it a near-certainty that Saturday's primary will head to a June 27 runoff. If Cassidy finishes third and is eliminated, he will have faced the ignominy of losing renomination despite his institutional power, while if he makes the runoff, he retains a realistic path to survival.