Julia Letlow advances to Louisiana Senate GOP runoff, as Sen. Bill Cassidy trails
Rep. Julia Letlow will compete in Louisiana’s Republican Senate primary runoff, NBC News projects. The question is whether she will face Sen. Bill Cassidy or state Treasurer John Fleming.
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Letlow, who has the support of President Donald Trump in the race, has a wide lead over Fleming and the incumbent, who are battling for second place in the June 27 runoff, as neither candidate is expected to gain majority support. Cassidy is currently in third place.
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No elected Republican senator has lost a primary since 2012. But Cassidy, who voted in 2021 to convict Trump of impeachment, had lowered his expectations for his performance in the primary, recently telling reporters that the race was “let’s lose.” But he also said he was confident in his ability to qualify for the second round.
The two-term senator had a financial advantage in the race, with his campaign and an allied group accounting for the majority of the $36 million spent on ads, according to AdImpact.
Cassidy has been dogged by some of his clashes with Trump, including his impeachment vote. He acknowledged in an interview last month that his impeachment vote “could be” a liability in the primary, but he stressed that he continued to support the president’s policies.
“I tell people, ‘Hey, are you married? Has your spouse ever done something you didn’t really like?’ And you achieve it,” Cassidy said. “I focus on the present and the future. If you want someone to take care of our state, make Louisiana a place where people settle down to put down roots, raise their children and grandchildren, I’m your guy.”
But Cassidy’s impeachment vote didn’t sit well with some Louisiana voters, like Elias Jacob FaKouri.
“He tried to impeach Trump, and Trump helped him get elected. That’s pretty low,” FaKouri, a Flemish supporter, said at a polling station in Baton Rouge.
“It’s time for him to go,” Fakori later added.
Cassidy, a physician, was also in the spotlight during the confirmation of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., given their disagreements over vaccines. Cassidy voted to confirm Kennedy to the post and has since walked a delicate tightrope between criticizing HHS on issues such as vaccines and trying not to antagonize Trump.
Cassidy’s supporters were not put off by his clashes with Trump, but instead praised his independent streak.
“It shows that he’s less influenced by one party, which I appreciate,” Donny Gutierrez said at the Baton Rouge polling station, before adding: “I think we need a lot more of that.”
While Cassidy made his own arguments ahead of the primary, he and his allies also attacked Letlow over her stock trading and her past support for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts when she worked at the University of Louisiana, dubbing her “Liberal Letlow.”
Letlow rejected these attacks, saying a third party handled her stock trading and that she had changed her stance on DEI initiatives.
“Cassidy is lying about me because he can’t make his own case,” Letlow told NBC News last month.
Letlow, meanwhile, touted her support for Trump on the airwaves, with the backing of an allied outside group. Letlow also has the support of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry.
She attacked Cassidy and Fleming as “never Trumpers” and said when she launched her Senate campaign: “In a state as conservative as ours, we shouldn’t have to wonder how our senator will vote when the pressure is on.” »
Letlow told NBC News last month that the president’s support had been “a huge source of energy for our campaign, because Louisiana Republicans trust President Trump.”
“When the president tells you we need to act, and when the voters of Louisiana are really encouraging, saying we want an alternative, we want another choice, would you consider doing that? Would you pray about it? And you know, when I got this article about it, I decided to go all in on it,” Letlow said.
Letlow was first elected to the House in 2021, succeeding her husband who died of Covid before taking the oath of office.
Fleming has presented himself as a Trump ally even though he doesn’t have the president’s support, launching an ad that he is the “real conservative” in the race that was “MAGA before MAGA was cool.”
Fleming was elected state treasurer in 2023 after serving in the first Trump administration. He served in Congress from 2009 to 2017 and was a founding member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, leaving the House to run unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2016.
The former congressman largely self-funded his Senate campaign, loaning his campaign $10.6 million. He launched his campaign in December 2024, well before Letlow entered the race, criticizing Cassidy for his 2021 impeachment vote.
Fleming said he was pressured to end his campaign and clear the way for Letlow to take on Cassidy, telling NBC News that someone “around” the Trump administration offered him a job to get him out of the race. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
As the race heads to a runoff, it is unclear whether Trump will become more involved in the race.
A Trump political adviser recently told NBC News that Trump and his orbit are more focused on defeating Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie in a May 19 primary, saying of the president, “There’s no way he’ll view Cassidy and Massie the same way.”
The president had not traveled to Louisiana to boost Letlow’s campaign before Saturday’s primary, although he appeared in a television ad for Letlow and recently posted on Truth Social, accusing Cassidy of rejecting his candidate for surgeon general. Trump also encouraged voters to reject Cassidy on Saturday morning, calling the senator a “treacherous disaster.”
It is not yet clear who will win the Democratic nomination, or whether this primary will also head to a runoff. But Republicans should be in a strong position to fill this seat in November.
Republicans running for federal office dominated recent elections in the Pelican State, which Trump won by 22 points in 2024.
