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Cassidy faces tough Senate primary challenge in Louisiana

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by Julia Mueller - 05/13/26 6:00 AM ET

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by Julia Mueller - 05/13/26 6:00 AM ET

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Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), long targeted by President Trump, is in the fight of his political life.

Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) and state Treasurer John Fleming (R) have their sights set on toppling Cassidy, who voted to convict the president during his second impeachment and has clashed with Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Saturday’s primary in Louisiana presents another test of influence for Trump after multiple candidates backed by the president won their primaries for state Senate in Indiana earlier this month, ousting incumbents who had voted against a Trump-backed redistricting plan.

“Trump’s definitely on the ballot. There’s no doubt about it. And it’s having an effect on every candidate,” said Pearson Cross, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana.

“[Of] course, it’s having a bad effect, potentially, on Cassidy, a good effect on Letlow, and it’s unclear with Fleming,” Cross said.

Cassidy was one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. He explained in a column at the time that he did so because the president was “guilty” of inciting rioters at the Capitol and “actively subverting the peaceful transfer of power,” but he took heat from Trump and was censured by his state party over the vote.

The two-term Senate Republican has sought to stress his alignment with Trump on issues like healthcare affordability and his efforts to help advance the president’s other priorities, key points in a state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2024.

Still, his impeachment vote has haunted his reelection bid, putting extra scrutiny on Cassidy’s moves in the upper chamber.

The senator publicly wavered over whether to support Kennedy as Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, before ultimately casting the deciding vote last year.

And last month, Trump blamed Cassidy for having to withdraw his controversial nominee for surgeon general, Casey Means, after her nomination stalled in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which Cassidy chairs.

“For months, Senator Bill Cassidy (of the GREAT State of Louisiana!), a very disloyal person whose ‘TRUMP’ Endorsement got him elected, but later voted to impeach ‘President Trump’ on what has now proven to be a total Hoax and Scam, has stood in the way of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Nominee, Casey Means, for the important position of U.S. Surgeon General,” Trump said in a late April post on Truth Social.

Cassidy told CNN’s Manu Raju that he had “no response” to Trump’s comments and, when asked if Trump would knock him out of his Senate seat, said “I don’t think so.”

“He’s pitching himself as the person who’s worked with Trump, who’s actually been productive, who, despite that vote — which he kind of evades a bit, to a certain extent — [he’s] saying essentially: ‘You have to look past that. That was something that happened a while back. But I’ve been very productive. I’ve worked with the Trump administration,'” Cross said of the senator.

Trump, however, is supporting Letlow, who has hammered the incumbent over his 2021 vote and snagged support from the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

Republicans’ Senate campaign arm backed Cassidy last year, but the incumbent is now trailing Letlow and Fleming, a former House member, in the polls just days before the primary election.

“This is a unique situation, I think, where you have an incumbent doing so poorly, and who has voted pretty conservatively on a lot of the big issues. … What has happened is the party has had a lurch to the right,” said Robert Hogan, a political science professor at Louisiana State University.

“It has really overcome his campaign … to the point that he is not considered MAGA enough,” he added. “That’s the central element going on here.”

An Emerson College Polling/KLFY News 10 survey of the primary released late last month found Fleming and Letlow effectively tied at 28 percent and 27 percent support, respectively, followed by Cassidy at 21 percent. Another 22 percent of survey respondents were undecided.

A Quantus Insights survey released last week found Letlow ahead with 42 percent support, followed by Fleming with 30 percent and Cassidy at 20 percent.

The current polling makes it look unlikely that any candidate will score the 50 percent support needed to win the prima