{"id":470,"date":"2026-05-16T15:34:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T15:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=470"},"modified":"2026-05-16T15:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T15:34:25","slug":"sen-bill-cassidy-faces-a-primary-for-the-first-time-since-his-trump-impeachment-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=470","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Bill Cassidy faces a primary for the first time since his Trump impeachment vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sen. Bill Cassidy\u2019s political career is at stake on Saturday as Louisiana voters weigh in on the Republican for the first time since he voted to convict President Donald Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial.<\/p>\n

Read more Sargassum blooms are impacting Florida\u2019s beaches<\/a><\/p>\n

Cassidy, a two-term senator, faces a primary challenge from Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming, who have both pitched themselves as more Trump-aligned alternatives. If no candidate gets majority support Saturday, the top two finishers will head to a runoff on June 27.<\/p>\n

Cassidy acknowledged in an interview with NBC News last month that his impeachment vote \u201cmight\u201d be a liability in the race. But he insisted he works well with Trump and highlighted his record of getting legislation passed and signed into law, drawing a contrast with his opponents. He also has the backing of Senate GOP leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cBill Cassidy has been a terrific senator for Louisiana,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Thursday. \u201cOur job is to do what we can to support incumbents \u2014 but obviously the voters of Louisiana are going to make that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day before the primary, Trump posted on Truth Social in support of Letlow, though he steered clear of attacking Cassidy in the way he did a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Julia well, have seen her tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and she is a TOTAL WINNER!\u201d the president wrote. \u201cA Proud Mother of two children, Julia is a wonderful person, has ALWAYS delivered for Louisiana, and would continue doing so in the United States Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ranks of Republicans who backed impeachment for Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot were never big to begin with, but they are dwindling in Congress. Among the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in 2021 and the seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict him, only three subsequently won re-election. And all of them ran in all-party primary scenarios, allowing them to reach beyond traditional Republican voters for support.<\/p>\n

In Louisiana, Gov. Jeff Landry, who is backing Letlow, signed legislation changing state primaries from \u201cjungle,\u201d all-party races to more traditional party primaries ahead of Cassidy\u2019s race. Landry also delayed all of Louisiana\u2019s House primaries that were scheduled for Saturday to give state lawmakers time to redraw congressional maps there, after the Supreme Court struck down the current district lines.<\/p>\n

The Senate primary stayed on its original date. Altogether, Cassidy says Landry is creating an uphill battle for him in the election.<\/p>\n

On a call with reporters Friday, Cassidy asserted that the closed primary is making it more difficult for unaffiliated voters to vote for him. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are calling my office to say they tried to vote for me, but they could not. \u201d Cassidy told reporters on a call Friday. \u201cPeople are confused \u2026 It\u2019s a terrible system for this election.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an accident that voters are confused by this intentionally difficult process,\u201d Cassidy campaign manager Kate Larkin wrote in a statement shared with NBC News. \u201cThe Governor closed the primary and continuously meddled in this election to support Julia Letlow.\u201d <\/p>\n

But as the Republican electorate measures him against Letlow and Fleming, Cassidy, a physician and the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is contending with the fact that impeachment is not the only time he has found himself out of step with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Read more YouTube taught a Japanese teen how to kick field goals. Now he\u2019s in the NFL.<\/a><\/p>\n

Cassidy has publicly clashed with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his vaccine skepticism, though the senator also cast the key vote to install Kennedy in his position.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Trump blamed Cassidy for standing in the way of his nominee for surgeon general, Casey Means, with opposition forcing the president to replace her with a new pick. Means, who Cassidy said did not have the votes to get confirmed, is a wellness influencer and a close ally of Kennedy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

These conflicts have made Cassidy a target of Kennedy\u2019s \u201cMake American Healthy Again\u201d movement, too. A group called MAHA PAC has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars aimed at replacing Cassidy with Letlow.<\/p>\n

Overall spending has topped $30 million. According to AdImpact, an ad-tracking service, ads in support of Cassidy have totaled $21.8 million, with another $9.8 million in ads boosting Letlow and $1.5 million in spending on pro-Fleming ads.<\/p>\n

Letlow has leaned heavily into the MAHA message in the closing weeks of the campaign, while Cassidy has attacked Letlow over her stock trades and past support for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts when she was working at the University of Louisiana.<\/p>\n

Cassidy has characterized the race as \u201cLetlow\u2019s to lose,\u201d but he has expressed confidence that he will ultimately win re-election no matter what happens with a potential runoff race.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is the person to beat,\u201d he said on a call with reporters in early May, adding that if Letlow \u201cdoesn\u2019t make the runoff … then I would be in against Dr. Fleming, and we would have accomplished our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleming has stayed in the race, despite Trump\u2019s endorsement of Letlow. He also claimed he was offered a Trump administration job to drop out, which he says he declined.<\/p>\n

Fleming has tried to marshal grassroots support by focusing his campaign on concerns about the state\u2019s carbon capture policies, and he has billed himself as the only \u201ctrue conservative\u201d in the race.<\/p>\n

While Trump may have waded into the race, other Republicans have stayed on the sidelines \u2014 including House Speaker Mike Johnson, a fellow Louisiana Republican.<\/p>\n

\u201cJulia is like a sister to me. We\u2019re very close,\u201d he told NBC News earlier this week. \u201cMy awkward situation is I\u2019m also close to the other candidates. John Fleming was my predecessor and was the first person who endorsed me to take this seat, and of course I\u2019ve worked well with Sen. Cassidy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Election denier Tina Peters set for release after Colorado governor commutes sentence<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who is a liver disease doctor, explained why he supported the CDC guidance that infants should receive the hepatitis B vaccine, as he raised concerns that the ACIP will vote to change the recommendation.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

Bridget Bowman contributed.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Louisiana Republican is running for re-election against Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nSen. Bill Cassidy faces a primary for the first time since his Trump impeachment vote - Jacksonville Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=470\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sen. 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