Bill Cassidy Gets Primaried – TPM – Talking Points Memo
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) was defeated tonight in a three-way primary against two Trump-aligned challengers. Emine Yücel has our story.
Trump-backed Rep. Julie Letlow (R-LA) and Louisiana State Treasurer, former Congressman John Fleming, will conduct a runoff election next month. Cassidy, with about 25 percent of the vote, won’t.
It’s another reminder of how, in 2026, the Republican Party is an entirely Trump-owned entity, where even the slightest ambivalence toward the president is severely punished. The Indiana primaries in April gave us an example; tonight we have another one.
Cassidy was one of the few remaining Republicans in the Senate to vote to convict Trump during his 2021 term, after January. 6 impeachment trials. (Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are the other Republicans who voted and remain in office.)
Most recently, Cassidy partially resisted Trump through an embarrassing story involving RFK Jr.: the current Secretary of Health and Human Services promised Cassidy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, that he would calm down on the anti-vax agenda if confirmed. We all know what happened next. As Emine details in his article, Kennedy secured Cassidy’s critical vote for confirmation, then ignored that pledge, leaving Cassidy to weakly remind everyone in the Senate that Kennedy is a liar.
Although he later opposed other unqualified healthcare candidates, such as Casey Means for surgeon general, Cassidy’s misguided vote for Kennedy stands as his legacy.
