The president’s revenge trip against his Republican opponents will take him through Louisiana, where incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy will face off against two MAGA rivals.
Louisiana Citizens Protest SCOTUS Ruling on Congressional Maps
Demonstrators rallied against a Supreme Court ruling that would give state Republicans a chance to redraw congressional maps before November’s midterm elections.
President Donald Trump is seeking to unseat yet another Republican opponent in a primary season in which he has been showing off his influence among rank-and-file conservatives.
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy is going after two Republican challengers who say the 68-year-old doctor has too often undermined his administration.
Mr. Cassidy has been highly praised by right-wing groups, but polls ahead of the May 16 election show him leading in the staunchly conservative state with Representative Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming.
Various polls paid for by the candidates showed mixed results, but an independent poll released by Emerson College in April found Cassidy in third place with 21 percent, behind Fleming at 28 percent and Letlow at 27 percent. According to the opinion poll, about 22% were undecided.
The two-term senator was one of the few Republicans in Congress to criticize administration officials during the hearing, including criticizing some of the decisions of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was reluctant to vote on confirmation in 2025.
Opponents and experts say Cassidy’s most egregious offense against the MAGA base is that he was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial in 2021 over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“They think this is a betrayal. This is a very pro-Trump state,” Fleming, a former congressman who served in the first Trump administration, told USA TODAY in a May 12 interview.
“Bill Cassidy would be considered a conservative in Massachusetts and New Hampshire,” he added. “But in Louisiana, he’s not considered a conservative at all.”
Mr. Retro said in a May 13 interview that Mr. Cassidy “spent four years trying to undermine” the president, including briefly flirting with a third-party bid that was “no label” in 2024.
“If I had a disagreement with President Trump, I would definitely pick up the phone and call him. I believe that’s how you guys deal with it,” Lelow told USA TODAY.
Cassidy’s campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
President Trump continues to win consecutive Republican primaries, even as he faces rising gas prices and an unpopular war in Iran, which has dented his approval ratings and prompted criticism from prominent MAGA figures online.
Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned from Congress after being criticized by President Trump for expressing dissatisfaction with the administration on issues such as Iran. Clay Fuller, a Trump-backed candidate, won a special election in April to replace her.
In the May 5 primary, the president helped defeat five of the seven Indiana members of Congress who did not comply with his demands to redraw the lines of Congress.
The president and his allies are similarly aiming to oust Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who is trailing his Trump-backed primary opponent in a new study released less than a week before the May 19 election.
Ben Hogan, a political science professor at Louisiana State University, said Cassidy has been a consistent conservative in Washington and has brought millions of taxpayer dollars to Pelican State University. But the Senate primary has turned into a referendum on whether to support President Trump, who has repeatedly criticized senators for their lack of loyalty.
“He voted the way he did at the time because he was actually angry with President Trump’s actions,” Hogan said of the impeachment trial. “But like many people, Cassidy thought Trump was in the rearview mirror.”
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President Trump’s popularity has declined ahead of the midterm elections. Roughly two-thirds of voters disapprove of President Trump’s handling of Iran, and the same goes for the economy and inflation, according to a recent Washington Post, ABC News, and Ipsos poll.
But Trump remains popular among Republicans, with a steady 85% approval rating in the same poll, which experts say explains why nearly the entire Louisiana Republican Party turned against Cassidy.
“The MAGA movement did not end after President Trump’s first term, and Republicans here in our state condemned Mr. Cassidy for voting to convict,” Hogan said.
“A lot of people don’t get over that. It’s definitely something that has bothered him and a lot of things since then remind us of that.”
Cassidy expressed concern last summer after President Kennedy fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). President Kennedy appointed eight new commissioners, including some members who are skeptical about vaccines.
Cassidy was a key swing vote in Kennedy’s confirmation process last year, admitting he had a “hard time” winning the nomination before ultimately voting in favor of the president’s controversial choice. But just recently, Republican lawmakers in Louisiana blasted President Trump’s nominee for Surgeon General, Casey Means, for a lack of support for vaccines, forcing her to withdraw.
The president took notice, calling Cassidy “a very dishonest person” in an April 30 social media post. Trump said his “indomitable spirit and political maneuvering” prevented Means from taking office.
Asked how lawmakers should handle disagreements with the administration, Retro said there needs to be “mutual respect for the people you work with and the constituents you send to Washington.”
Leslow, who was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2020, received an endorsement from President Trump in March when he called her a “total winner.” He said he would support the administration on energy development, tax cuts and deregulation.
The 45-year-old congressman has also received support from other key Louisiana Republicans close to the president, including Attorney General Liz Murrill and Gov. Jeff Landry, who criticized the senator’s disagreement.
“Cassidy has never stood up for us,” Landry told the USA TODAY Network’s Shreveport Times.
That strengthened Ms. Lelow’s candidacy and allowed her to match Mr. Cassidy’s fundraising in the first three months of the year, raising about $8 million compared to Mr. Cassidy’s $8.5 million.
Rivals tout MAGA credentials, exchange jabs and accusations
Each candidate has worked hard to carve out a space to show conservative voters that they align with the president, but this is especially important to Cassidy.
The senator has 86% support from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and has the backing of Republican leadership through the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which endorsed him last year.
“From advancing health care solutions to helping President Trump pass big, beautiful legislation, Dr. Cassidy is an essential part of the Senate majority,” South Dakota Republican Leader John Thune said in a statement.
Mr. Cassidy’s campaign has focused on legislative victories and his influence in Washington, including policies signed by Mr. Trump and sponsored by him, such as fighting fentanyl addiction and lowering prescription drug prices. He is also toying with allies in the state Legislature who argue that a loss would reduce the state’s influence in the Senate.
Outside groups, including a pro-Cassidy super PAC called the Louisiana Freedom Fund, have slammed Letlow in a series of attack ads. These spots claim she voted more for former President Joe Biden than other Louisiana Republicans, a claim the Letlow campaign denies.
Republican consultant Liz Mair said Cassidy’s profile fits the traditional definition of a conservative, but that Trump and the MAGA movement have dramatically changed Republican politics.
He said the fundamental reason Cassidy has been in trouble this year is not so much because he’s rebelling against Trump, but because he’s taking traditional positions on a wide range of issues, particularly health care, that run counter to populist movements.
Mair said he has alienated the MAGA crowd by siding with the pharmaceutical industry on a variety of policy debates, including drug discounts for local hospitals and vaccines.
“That may have worked when he was first elected, but times have changed and he is now too out of touch with today’s Republican Party,” she said. “And that’s why his polls look weak.”
No candidate is expected to pass the 50% threshold to avoid a June 27 runoff between the top two candidates.
Fleming and Letlow aren’t immune to each other’s attacks, either. Mr. Letlow criticized Mr. Fleming, for example, for refusing to override the Senate filibuster that is blocking passage of the SAVE America Act.
The bill, backed by President Trump, aims to overhaul U.S. elections ahead of the midterm elections and has passed the House of Representatives. But it remains stalled in the Senate, lacking the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome the Democratic filibuster.
“If the filibuster is the only thing standing between the American people and safe elections, then it’s time to get rid of it,” LeRoux told USA TODAY. “My opponent, John Fleming, has said flatly that he does not support eliminating the filibuster to pass the SAVE Act, and the people of Louisiana don’t want a senator who won’t fight for safe elections.”
Given the potential for resistance, Fleming said it remains unclear whether the Republican-controlled Senate will have the 51 votes needed to pass the bill if the filibuster is eliminated. He also warned that eliminating the filibuster could hurt Republicans in the future.
“We need to be very careful about taking drastic steps that could take away power and voice from minorities, who in some cases are Republicans,” he said.
Fleming, who served as White House chief of staff in 2020, also claims he received a call from the administration encouraging him to withdraw from the campaign and take a job at the Centers for Disease Control. He then said he received a direct call from President Trump.
“I reminded him that no one is more loyal to him than me,” Fleming told USA TODAY. “And he finally said, ‘Well, you’re great. Why haven’t you called me before?’ So I had to say to him, ‘Sir, everyone around you has blocked access to me and to you.'”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment about the alleged job offer or the conversation with the president.
Mr. Letlow denied knowing anything about his rival’s job offer to drop out and called Mr. Fleming a “conspiracy theorist.”
Contributor: Greg Hilburn
