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Cassidy’s do-or-die Louisiana primary battle: What to know

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by Sophie Brams - 05/16/26 4:45 PM ET

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by Sophie Brams - 05/16/26 4:45 PM ET

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Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) is facing the biggest challenge of his political career on Saturday as voters take to the polls for a highly competitive GOP Senate primary.

Cassidy is seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate but his path to the Republican nomination runs through a pair of tough challengers who are hoping to convince voters that the incumbent is not conservative enough to represent a state that voted overwhelmingly for President Trump in 2024.

The Louisiana Republican was one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — a decision that made him a prime target for MAGA anger.

Cassidy wrote in a newspaper column at the time that he did so because he believed Trump was “guilty” of inciting rioters and “clearly intended to prevent a peaceful transfer of power.”

The former practicing physician has also taken heat from the president’s core base over his public clashes with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine policy, despite him casting the deciding vote to advance Kennedy’s nomination.

Cassidy’s breaks with the Republican Party have drawn the ire of Trump, who slammed the senator ahead of Saturday’s election as a “disloyal disaster.”

“Bill Cassidy is a sleazebag, a terrible guy, who is BAD FOR LOUISIANA,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Now he’s going to get CLOBBERED, hopefully, in today’s BIG election, by two great people!!!”

Trump is backing Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) in the primary, a coveted endorsement that once belonged to Cassidy when he first ran for reelection in 2020. Letlow’s husband, former Rep.-elect Luke Letlow, died from complications of COVID-19 in December 2020, and she won a special election three months later to finish out his term.

A third candidate, Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming, has also thrown his hat in the ring.

Saturday’s contest serves as another test of the president’s influence over the party, coming off the heels of an Indiana state Senate primary that saw multiple Republican incumbents who rejected his redistricting push defeated by Trump-backed challengers.

Meanwhile, Cassidy has the backing of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, headed by Republican Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.).

The race in Louisiana is expected to be tight, with recent polling suggesting that none of the candidates has likely secured the 50 percent support needed to avoid a June 27 runoff between the top two vote-getters.

An Emerson College Polling/KLFY News 10 survey released late last month found a virtual tie between Letlow and Fleming at 28 percent, with Cassidy trailing closely behind at 27 percent. Another 22 percent of voters were still undecided.

It also happens to be Cassidy’s first reelection contest since the state moved away from a “jungle primary” model in which all candidates for the office run on the same ballot, regardless of party affiliation.

The state’s elections are now held under a closed-party primary system in which Republicans and Democrats hold separate nomination contests and only voters registered with that party can participate. Unaffiliated voters, called “no party” voters, can choose to participate in either primary but not both.

Cassidy knocked the change in a statement to Nexstar affiliate WGNO last month, alleging the process was “set up to disenfranchise certain voters in our state.” In response, Letlow’s campaign accused the senator of “privately encouraging” Democrats to cross over and “save him” in the GOP primary.

That change is not the only source of confusion voters are potentially facing at the polls, as they will no longer see U.S. House races on the ballot.

Gov. Jeff Landry (R) suspended the House primary elections in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that struck down Louisiana’s second majority-Black congressional district as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

The Senate race was allowed to proceed as planned, however, which Cassidy described as “disappointing” late last month.

“Louisiana voters have an important choice to make about who will represent them in the U.S. Senate for the next six years,” Cassidy wrote on the social platform X. “The governor’s decision to move ahead with the Senate race during a confusing time is disappointing.”

Polls in Louisiana close at 8 p.m. CDT on Saturday.

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