“Donald Trump targeted Bill Cassidy with a message — but in defeat, Cassidy fired one right back.”
Bill Cassidy lost his reelection primary after years of tension with Donald Trump over impeachment. Despite defeat, Cassidy used his concession speech to warn against leaders who put personal power above the Constitution, signaling he may remain a vocal critic of Trump and the GOP establishment.
Trump’s grip on the party
Bill Cassidy tried to move past his impeachment vote by highlighting cooperation with Donald Trump, but GOP voters never forgot. Trump repeatedly attacked Cassidy’s “disloyalty,” and the senator’s vote to convict ultimately became a political liability that ended his reelection bid.
Cassidy takes road less traveled
One of the reasons that Trump has not defeated a Republican senator until now is because his earlier intraparty critics chose not to seek reelection rather than face his wrath in a primary, with North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis being the most recent example. Cassidy made clear early on that he would not go out without a fight.
In his concession speech, he said he had no regrets.
“I’ve been able to participate in democracy,” he said, “and when you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to.”
Cassidy’s defeat could be a warning sign to another Senate Republican who’s previously irked Trump and has forged ahead with a challenging reelection bid: Sen. John Cornyn in neighboring Texas. But unlike in Louisiana, Trump has stayed out of the contest between Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which will be resolved in a May 26 runoff.
An intriguing runoff
With Cassidy out of the picture, the runoff between Letlow and Fleming raises new questions about who the president’s supporters in Louisiana prefer for the seat.
While Letlow starts the overtime round as the favorite, Fleming proved to be resilient in the primary as he pitched himself as the true pro-Trump candidate. He is a former congressman who worked in the White House during Trump’s first term.
Notably, Trump referred to both challengers as “two great people” in a social media post as the voting in the primary began Saturday morning.
In her primary night speech, Letlow suggested she would not take the runoff for granted, promising to travel throughout the state again. Trump spoke of the runoff a bit more flippantly – while making clear he remained firmly behind Letlow.
“Julia Letlow is a fantastic person and, after taking care of some additional business, will make a brilliant Senator for the Great People of Louisiana,” he wrote on social media.
Fleming said in a statement Sunday that he would “embrace this challenge enthusiastically.”
“The runoff starts today, and I could not be more energized,” he said.
Cassidy unleashed?
Tillis has been more outspoken about the Trump administration since deciding against seeking reelection. Tillis recently held up Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh to chair the Federal Reserve to pressure the Justice Department to drop its investigation into then-Chair Jay Powell.
Cassidy said Saturday night that the country is “not about one individual” and went on to contrast himself with unnamed “leaders” who are more concerned about themselves than the people they serve. And he brought up his experience of “being attacked on the internet,” speaking minutes before Trump launched his latest broadside against him accusing him of disloyalty.
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