Trump backs Letlow in Louisiana Senate primary against Cassidy

BATON ROUGE, La. — President Donald Trump is targeting Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana in Saturday's GOP Senate primary.

Cassidy voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial. Trump and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry are backing Rep. Julia Letlow. Former Rep. John Fleming, the state treasurer, is also running. If no candidate reaches 50 percent, the top two will meet in a June 27 runoff.

The primary tests Trump's influence in Republican nomination contests. Cassidy won re-election six years ago and was one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Since Trump took office again, Cassidy has backed the president's agenda and nominees, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again movement oppose Cassidy. The senator, a doctor and chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, has questioned Kennedy's health policies and did not advance the surgeon general nomination of Casey Means, a Kennedy ally.

Trump has called Cassidy a "very disloyal person" and praised Letlow on social media as a "Highly Respected America First Congresswoman." Louisiana's shift to separate party primaries creates a more conservative electorate for the GOP nomination.

Cassidy highlights his record of delivering for Louisiana, one of the nation's poorest states, and his support for the oil and gas industry, which employs about 15 percent of the state's workforce. He told Fox News Digital that Trump has signed four bills he wrote or negotiated.

Cassidy and an allied super PAC have spent more than $20 million on ads, according to AdImpact, outpacing Letlow and Fleming combined. Some ads criticize Letlow's past support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Letlow said in a Fox News Digital interview that she opposed DEI after seeing it "hijacked" into "Marxist leftist indoctrination." She called the attacks "baseless" and "desperate." Letlow won her House seat in 2021 after her husband, Luke Letlow, died days after his 2020 election victory. Trump endorsed her before she entered the Senate race.

Letlow has criticized Cassidy for supporting the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. Cassidy said the measure brought $13.5 billion to Louisiana for roads, bridges and high-speed internet and created jobs. Fleming, who served in Trump's first administration, says he is the most conservative candidate and claims Letlow is "not the prototype for a Trump endorsement."

A super PAC supporting Letlow has run ads against Fleming. Trump carried Louisiana by 22 points in 2024. Letlow called his endorsement "the most powerful endorsement in the world."

Voters will also decide races for state Supreme Court, Public Service Commission and school board, plus five constitutional amendments. U.S. House primaries were postponed after the Supreme Court struck down the current congressional map. Republican state senators advanced a plan this week to eliminate one of the state's two majority-Black districts.