Sen. Bill Cassidy loses reelection bid, CNN projects, as Julia Letlow and John Fleming advance to Louisiana Senate runoff

By Patrick Svitek, CNN

(CNN) — Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, has lost his bid for a third term in a remarkable defeat, after two primary challengers — including one backed by President Donald Trump — finished ahead of him in Saturday’s primary and headed to a runoff for his seat.

Rep. Julia Letlow, who won Trump’s endorsement, and a second opponent, Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming, will advance to the June 27 runoff, CNN’s Decision Desk projects. No candidate will receive a majority of the vote Saturday night, though Letlow was well ahead of both Fleming and Cassidy.

Cassidy’s defeat is the latest demonstration of Trump’s ability to exact revenge against Republicans who cross him, five years after Cassidy voted to convict Trump during the president’s second impeachment. Cassidy will become the first Republican senator to lose reelection in a primary since Alabama Sen. Luther Strange lost his seat in a 2017 primary runoff.

“Bill Cassidy, after falsely using his ‘relationship’ with me during his political career, and winning Elections because of it, voted to impeach me on preposterous charges that were fake then, and now, are criminally insane!” Trump posted on Truth Social late Saturday. “His disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of legend, and it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!”

Cassidy told supporters that Saturday’s election did not yield “the result that I necessarily wanted, but I feel great.” He did not mention Trump but appeared to offer a veiled critique of the president and his party’s focus on him.

“Let me just set the record straight: Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans and it is about our Constitution. And it is the welfare of my people and my state and my country and my Constitution to which I am loyal,” he added. “And if someone doesn’t understand that and attempts to control others through using the levers of power, they’re about serving themselves. They’re not about serving us. And that person is not qualified to be a leader.”

Letlow said her first-place finish showed “how powerful” Trump’s endorsement is.

“Our work is not done,” she said, looking to the runoff. “We have one more race coming up, and I will promise you this: I will crisscross all across this state yet again.”

Saturday’s election was a crucial time for Trump’s ability to show he can unseat fellow Republicans who cross him. The Louisiana election came three days before Trump hopes to beat Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie in his primary, a race that has drawn more attention.

Unseating a senator would be a new feat for Trump. Some of his intraparty detractors in the Senate have chosen not to seek reelection rather than face his potential wrath in a primary.

He wrote in another lengthy Truth Social post earlier Saturday that Cassidy, “is a disloyal disaster. His entire past campaign for the Senate was about ‘TRUMP.’”

A doctor from Baton Rouge, Cassidy was first elected to the Senate in 2014. He previously served in the House and in the Louisiana State Senate.

Cassidy is one of the few Republicans left in Congress who voted to convict Trump during a Senate impeachment trial over his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. He represents a solidly red state that backed Trump by 22 percentage points in 2024.

More recently, Cassidy – a physician – had tension with Trump as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. While Cassidy voted to confirm Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he has split with the administration on other parts of its “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.

Last month, after Trump had to pull his nominee for surgeon general, Casey Means, the president blamed Cassidy.

On the campaign trail, Cassidy has sought to portray the race as about “the present and the future” and has boasted about having a good working relationship with Trump despite the impeachment vote.

“I’m not claiming the president loves me — no — but you can work with people even if you don’t love each other if you’ve got a common goal,” Cassidy said Friday on CNN’s “Situation Room.” “And my goal is to make my country and my state — and everybody who lives here — better off.”

Cassidy has long had a large financial advantage in the primary and used it to almost exclusively attack Letlow, saying the race is hers to lose. He has focused on her background in higher education and past efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that are now toxic in the GOP.

Yet in the final days of the primary, his two challengers have been battling one another.

Fleming, a former congressman who has been involved in Louisiana politics for decades, has sought to portray himself as more aligned with Trump than Letlow, especially after working in the White House during Trump’s first term.

Letlow’s campaign has labeled Fleming a “Never Trumper” and, along with an outside group, targeted him on a range of other issues, including his work as a lobbyist before he became state treasurer.

Cassidy had been endorsed by Senate GOP leaders, as is custom for incumbents, though national Republicans have otherwise kept their distance from the primary. Not only is Trump backing Letlow, but so is the state’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry.

The election occurred under new and unusual circumstances. Landry recently postponed House primaries – but kept the Senate primary scheduled for Saturday – in response to a Supreme Court ruling on redistricting. The election also is the first under a new closed primary system where unaffiliated voters – a key bloc for Cassidy – have to fill out extra paperwork if they want to participate in the GOP primary.

Cassidy’s campaign manager, Katie Larkin, issued a statement Friday suggesting Landry was behind an “intentionally difficult process” for voters, saying, “The Governor closed the primary and continuously meddled in this election to support Julia Letlow.”

Landry’s office did not respond to a request for comment, but in a Fox Business interview Friday, he predicted Letlow would finish first in the primary and took a shot at Cassidy and Fleming.

“She’s had two men that have just not been very southerly about the way they’ve treated her,” Landry said.

While Trump’s political capital was on the line Saturday, the primary was also a test for allies of Kennedy, the health secretary. A group associated with Kennedy’s agenda, MAHA PAC, spent six figures opposing Cassidy and supporting Letlow, though other super PACs have spent much more in the primary.

The-CNN-Wire
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