Louisiana ousts Bill Cassidy from Senate as Julia Letlow leads race
Louisiana ousts Bill Cassidy from Senate as Julia Letlow leads race
Greg Hilburn, Shreveport Times Sun, May 17, 2026 at 10:33 AM UTC
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Louisiana voters ousted incumbent Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy on May 16, choosing Trump-backed Congresswoman Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming for a head-to-head runoff in the GOP party primary.
Letlow led the way with 45% of the vote with most precincts reporting, followed by Fleming at 28% and and Cassidy out of the money at 25%.
Neither Republican voters nor President Trump forgave Cassidy for his 2021 vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial.
Letlow and Fleming will vie for the Republican nomination in a June 27 runoff election.
Louisiana Congresswoman Julia Letlow, R-Baton Rouge, speaks to an audience at Louisiana Tech University on Aug. 25, 2025.
James “Jamie” Davis Jr., a farmer whose grandfather was a sharecropper, led the way in the Democratic Senate party primary with 47%. He will face New Orleans businessman Gary Crockett in the Democratic primary runoff. Crocket edged out Nick Albares for the runoff by 284 votes 90,764 to 90,480.
Louisiana U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy qualified for re-election on Feb. 13, 2026.
The winners of the party primary runoffs will face each other in the Nov. 3 general election, where the Republican candidate will be heavily favored.
Letlow rode Trump's endorsement throughout the primary campaign, calling it the most powerful tool a Republican can have.
"(Trump) knew he needed someone he could depend on in the Senate," said Letlow, who is giving up her 5th Congressional District seat to run for Senate. "You can depend on me for having an America First agenda."
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Republican state Treasurer John Fleming speaks to reporters Feb. 11, 2026 after qualifying for the U.S. Senate race at the Louisiana secretary of state's archive building.
Fleming, who also touts his MAGA credentials and worked for Trump during his first term, paints himself as an outsider and brands Letlow as an America First fraud.
Cassidy had emphasized his record as an effective legislator, an architect of the bipartisan Infrastructure Act and passing his own bills like the Halt Fentanyl Act and his legislation to end surprise medical billing.
"I have delivered time and time again," Cassidy said during the campaign.
Cassidy tried to make amends with the president, providing the swing vote for approving two of Trump's most controversial cabinet nominees — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
But he never recovered from the vote to convict Trump, effectively ending a political career that included two Senate terms and three terms in the U.S. House before that, though he will serve in the Senate until his term ends in 2027.
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
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This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Louisiana ousts Bill Cassidy from Senate as Julia Letlow leads race
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