{"id":16062,"date":"2026-05-17T10:31:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T02:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16062"},"modified":"2026-05-17T10:31:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T02:31:50","slug":"cassidy-loses-louisiana-senate-gop-primary-as-trump-backed-challenger-advances-to-runoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16062","title":{"rendered":"Cassidy loses Louisiana Senate GOP primary as Trump-backed challenger advances to runoff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) was projected to fail to advance to the runoff in Louisiana\u2019s GOP Senate primary Saturday, according to Decision Desk HQ, ending the incumbent senator\u2019s reelection bid after years of political fallout from his vote to convict President Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming (R) were projected to advance instead, a major victory for Trump as the president worked to oust one of the few remaining senators who broke with him after the Capitol attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No candidate secured at least half of the vote to avoid a June 27 runoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has targeted Cassidy for years over the vote, repeatedly attacking the Louisiana senator on the campaign trail and encouraging Letlow to challenge him earlier this year. Cassidy was one of seven GOP senators to vote to convict the president in his second impeachment trial, and one of only three who remain in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, Trump has blamed Cassidy \u2014 chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a medical physician \u2014 for blocking the nomination of Casey Means for surgeon general, drawing backlash from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and allies of his Make America Health Again (MAHA) movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday\u2019s race marked Cassidy\u2019s toughest reelection battle since he first won the Senate seat in 2014. Polling in the final weeks of the race showed a close contest between Cassidy, Letlow and Fleming, with some surveys suggesting Cassidy was at risk of missing the runoff altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump endorsed and encouraged Letlow to run before she launched her campaign in January. Letlow first won her House seat in a 2021 special election after her husband, Luke Letlow, won election to Congress in 2020 but died from COVID-19 before taking office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She quickly emerged as Cassidy\u2019s top challenger, centering her campaign on support for the president and attacking Cassidy over his impeachment vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fleming, a physician and former congressman, has also competed aggressively for conservative voters aligned with Trump. He represented Louisiana in the House from 2009 to 2017, before serving in the Trump administration as assistant secretary of Commerce for economic development and later as a White House aide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Cassidy has not gone out of his way to antagonize the president. Asked on Friday why he thinks Trump wants to oust him from office, Cassidy told CNN, \u201cI can\u2019t understand the president\u2019s mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not claiming the president loves me, no, but you can work with people even if you don\u2019t love each other if you got a common goal,\u201d Cassidy added. \u201cAnd my goal is to make my country and my state and everybody who lives here better off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before polls closed Saturday, Trump ripped Cassidy and called the Louisiana Republican a \u201cdisloyal disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBill Cassidy is a sleazebag, a terrible guy, who is BAD FOR LOUISIANA,\u201d Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. \u201cNow he\u2019s going to get CLOBBERED, hopefully, in today\u2019s BIG election, by two great people!!!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cassidy was backed by much of the Republican establishment in Washington, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday\u2019s contest also marked Louisiana\u2019s first Senate election under the state\u2019s new closed-primary system after Republican lawmakers last year voted to abandon the longtime \u201cjungle primary\u201d format. Under the new rules, only registered Republicans could vote in the GOP primary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cassidy opposed the change, and critics of the new system argued it could make it harder for the incumbent to survive by shutting out independents and Democrats who may have otherwise backed him under the old format.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) was projected to fail to advance to the runoff in Louisiana\u2019s GOP Senate primary Saturday, according to Decision Desk HQ, ending the incumbent senator\u2019s reelection bid after years of political fallout from his vote to convict President Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4142,3918,1724],"class_list":["post-16062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-cassidy","tag-letlow","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nCassidy loses Louisiana Senate GOP primary as Trump-backed challenger advances to runoff - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16062\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cassidy loses Louisiana Senate GOP primary as Trump-backed challenger advances to runoff - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) was projected to fail to advance to the runoff in Louisiana\u2019s GOP Senate primary Saturday, according to Decision Desk HQ, ending the incumbent senator\u2019s reelection bid after years of political fallout from his vote to convict President Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Trump-endorsed Rep. 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