Sen. Bill Cassidy’s defeat shows the price of dissent in Trump’s Republican Party

Sen. Bill Cassidy’s defeat Saturday ends a two-decade career in public service that was ultimately defined by tensions with President Donald Trump.

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And when Republicans have tensions with Trump, it’s usually the president who wins.

Cassidy failed to advance in Louisiana’s Republican primary, with Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming expected to face off in a June 27 runoff. The winner of the GOP contest will be the heavy favorite this fall in ruby ​​red Louisiana.

The result constitutes another trophy for Trump’s collection in his continued attempt to oust Republicans perceived as disloyal to him.

Throughout Cassidy’s career, there were occasional signs that the doctor-turned-politician wasn’t quite in sync with his party on a handful of issues, including those related to health care. But Cassidy’s cardinal sin, in the eyes of Trump and his supporters, was voting in 2021 to convict the then-former president of inciting an insurrection on January 6.

Cassidy had just been re-elected a few weeks earlier with a commanding majority. His vote after the impeachment trial was seen as a surprise by a senator not known for opposing his party once the dust settles.

This ran counter to a tendency of Cassidy’s during his tenure in the Senate: a tendency to express his moderate instincts and occasional disagreements with his party more in words than in votes. This time, however, he broke with most of his party in the Senate.

“Our Constitution and our country are more important than any one person,” Cassidy said in a brief statement after the vote. “I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty.”

And Trump never forgot it, having led a largely successful campaign to oust Republicans who voted to impeach or convict him. Only two of the six other Republican senators who voted to convict Trump are still in office: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, and Sen. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. And only two of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him are still in office, with just one up for re-election this year: Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif.

Cassidy’s vote to convict Trump came just months after the senator was re-elected to his second six-year term. He was first elected to the Senate during the 2014 red wave, ousting Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu. Prior to that, he served in the House of Representatives for six years and in the Louisiana State Senate for approximately two years.

It underscores the tight grip Trump maintains on a Republican voting core that shares his ruthless demands that party lawmakers be loyal to him.

Never mind that Cassidy’s voting record has been closely aligned with Trump’s agenda in the Senate. The senator rarely voted against his legislative priorities, administrative staff or judicial nominees during either term.

A recent ad from the National Republican Senatorial Committee highlighted Cassidy’s support for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last year, saying “Senator Bill Cassidy and President Trump kept their promise and delivered” on tax cuts.

Aside from Cassidy’s impeachment vote, his palpable discomfort with elements of Trump’s agenda and the “Make America Healthy Again” movement since the president won a second term in 2024 has garnered attention this year — even if, once again, his actual voting record did not deviate.

In particular, there was conflict between Cassidy, a physician and staunch vaccine supporter, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic who sought to infuse his philosophy into government policy. Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health Committee that oversees Kennedy’s department, made his reservations clear last year.

But he still voted to confirm him to the position of power.

There’s this pattern again for Cassidy, who often stays loyal to her party in the final vote after expressing her discomfort along the way.

In 2017, as Republicans prepared to repeal the Affordable Care Act during Trump’s first year in office, Cassidy made a high-profile appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and said any health care bill had to “pass the Jimmy Kimmel test” — named after his son, in that it would not negatively impact the care of a child born with a disease congenital heart disease.

Cassidy then voted for the GOP effort, which rolled back protections for pre-existing conditions. He narrowly failed in the Senate.

This year in January, Cassidy said after Department of Homeland Security agents shot and killed two Americans in Minnesota: “The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing. The credibility of ICE and DHS is at stake.” Still, he stood with his party on a series of votes amid Democratic demands to overhaul DHS enforcement practices.

Her statement comes just a week after Trump publicly called on Letlow to enter the race, preemptively endorsing her and saying on Truth Social: “RUN, JULIA, RUN!!! »

Letlow launched his campaign three days later.

She now moves on to another round of the Republican primary. Cassidy is not.