Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) spent five years trying to outlast his impeachment vote. On Saturday night in Louisiana, the clock ran out.
The Louisiana Republican failed to make the runoff in Saturday’s closed GOP Senate primary, finishing third behind Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming, who advance to a June 27 runoff. The result was a direct verdict on the vote Cassidy cast in February 2021, when he joined six other Republican senators in voting to convict Trump following the January 6 Capitol riot. Trump was acquitted. Cassidy was not forgiven.
With most of the vote counted, Letlow led with roughly 45 percent, nearly double Cassidy’s share. Fleming came in at about 28 percent, and Cassidy sat just under 25. The incumbent, with two terms, a $20 million ad campaign, and the backing of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, finished last. Because no candidate cleared 50 percent, Letlow and Fleming advance to a June 27 runoff for the Republican nomination.
Trump backed Letlow and made clear before Election Day that he wanted Cassidy gone. The president called Cassidy “a disloyal disaster” and “a sleazebag, a terrible guy, who is BAD FOR LOUISIANA” in a Truth Social post before polls closed.
“His disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of a legend, and it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the result.
Cassidy spent Trump’s second term trying to win back the base. He voted to confirm RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary and backed other administration priorities, but the impeachment vote was not the kind of thing Louisiana Republicans were inclined to forgive. He made things worse when the surgeon general nomination of Casey Means, a close Kennedy ally, stalled in Cassidy’s Senate HELP Committee without a vote. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again supporters had been looking for a reason to come after him. That gave them one.
Letlow kept her message simple.
“This is not my seat, it’s the people’s seat,” Letlow told supporters. “Unfortunately, I believe [Cassidy] forgot that when he took that vote that he should not have, and Louisiana did not forget.”
Letlow also thanked Trump after the result, saying Louisiana voters were ready for “strong conservative leadership that will stand with President Trump and never waver.”
Cassidy conceded Saturday night and took one last shot in Trump’s direction.
“When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to,” Cassidy said. “But you don’t pout, you don’t whine. You don’t claim the election was stolen… You don’t manufacture some excuse.”
Cassidy and an allied super PAC spent more than $20 million on ads, outspending Letlow and Fleming combined, according to AdImpact. Some of those ads hammered Letlow over her past support for DEI programs during her time at the University of Louisiana Monroe. None of it mattered. Money could not buy back what the impeachment vote cost him.
Louisiana’s new closed-primary system, which Republicans in the state legislature adopted last year after abandoning the longtime “jungle primary” format, almost certainly made things harder for Cassidy. Under the old rules, independents and Democrats could vote, and Cassidy had historically relied on that broader coalition. Saturday was the first Senate election under the new system, and it was a pure Republican electorate that rendered judgment. Cassidy opposed the change. He had reason to.
Letlow, with Trump’s endorsement, finished at 45 percent. Fleming, a former congressman who served in the Trump White House and ran as the more conservative option, came in at 28. The two will face each other June 27. The winner will be heavily favored in the general election in a state Trump carried by 22 points in 2024.
Saturday was not an isolated result. Earlier this month, Trump-backed challengers ousted five Indiana Republican state senators who had voted to block his congressional redistricting push. Kentucky votes Tuesday, where Trump is working to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie.
Cassidy is the first elected Republican senator to lose renomination since Indiana’s Richard Lugar in 2012. Lugar, too, had built a reputation for working across the aisle. His base eventually ran out of patience with him as well.
Cassidy outspent his opponents, held two terms worth of legislative accomplishments, and had the backing of Senate leadership. None of it was enough. For a large share of Republican primary voters in Louisiana, the impeachment vote was not something that faded with time or goodwill. Cassidy cast it five years ago, and on Saturday night, they cast theirs.
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