By offering his “complete and total endorsement” to a possible primary opponent, Donald Trump has attempted to deal a devastating blow to Senator Bill Cassidy’s prospects of winning reelection. Cassidy is a fellow Republican with whom the president has a political quarrel.
Following the senator’s vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial during Trump’s first administration, Trump has endorsed US House member Julia Letlow and encouraged her to run for Cassidy’s Senate seat in Louisiana.
Since then, Cassidy, a physician, has worked to regain Trump’s support, even voting to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as US health secretary despite Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stance. Additionally, Cassidy later said publicly that he was certain Trump would not support anyone when he ran for reelection in the midterm elections in November.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump did, however, write that if Letlow “decides to enter this Race, [she] has my Complete and Total Endorsement.”
“JULIA, RUN, RUN!!!” Trump’s post ended.
After his followers carried out the US Capitol assault on January 6, 2021, Cassidy was one of seven Republican US senators who betrayed their party loyalty by voting to convict the president in his second impeachment trial.
Then, in February, Cassidy joined 51 other Republicans in voting along party lines to approve Kennedy as the Trump administration’s health secretary. Since then, Cassidy has often criticized anti-vaccine policies that align with Kennedy’s beliefs, such as Louisiana’s decision to forbid the promotion of mass immunization against illnesses that may be prevented.
“I’m proudly running for re-election as a principled conservative who gets things done for the people of Louisiana,” Cassidy said on X in response to Trump’s rejection on Saturday. I’m sure I’ll win if Congresswoman Letlow runs.
In 2021, Letlow won a special election for the US House seat in Louisiana, a seat her husband, Luke, had previously held before his death from COVID-19. She was elected as the first Republican woman from Louisiana to serve in Congress.
Letlow expressed her gratitude for Trump’s faith in a social media comment over the endorsement. “I have a clear mission: to make sure the country our children inherit is safer and stronger,” she said on social media.
The deadline for filing for Cassidy’s seat is February 13.
The timing of a possible electoral confrontation between Cassidy and Letlow is notable. Legislators in Louisiana agreed in 2024 to switch from an open, or “jungle,” party primary system to a closed one for Cassidy’s seat and other elected offices.
If no candidate obtains more than 50% of the primary vote, two candidates from the same party may compete in a runoff under an open primary. In contrast, the current method almost guarantees that a candidate from each major party will appear in the runoff.
In his situation, Cassidy would have been eligible for the runoff even if he had come second to a Republican in the primary under the previous system, but he could only do so if he won his primary. The majority leader, Senator John Thune, reportedly received a call from Trump on Friday informing him that he would probably support Letlow, according to the New York Times.
According to reports, Thune urged the president to back Cassidy, pointing out the long-term repercussions and that Trump was beginning to advance a significant healthcare package that Cassidy would be in charge of as the Senate health committee chair.
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