Trump makes an attempt to oust GOP senator who voted to convict him by endorsing lawmaker to problem his seat
President Donald Trump has withheld his support for a sitting GOP senator running for reelection this year, instead endorsing another candidate in the Louisiana Senate race.
Republican Representative Julia Letlow, who was elected in a special election in 2021 to fill the seat of her late husband who died of COVID before he could be sworn, is Trump’s new candidate of choice.
Trump tweeted out an endorsement of Congresswoman Letlow, urging her to get into the race Saturday evening, reigniting his skirmish with the incumbent Republican, Bill Cassidy.
‘RUN JULIA RUN!!!’ Trump wrote in a post on his social media site, Truth Social, on Saturday night, adding: ‘Should she decide to enter this Race, Julia Letlow has my Complete and Total Endorsement.’
Sources told Politico on Sunday that Letlow is ‘preparing to jump into the Louisiana Senate’ and could make her announcement as soon as Monday.
Although Cassidy has done his best to stay on Trump’s good side since the president was inaugurated to his second term last year, Trump is known to hold grudges.
Cassidy voted to convict Trump ‘on a single article of impeachment charging him with “incitement of insurrection”‘ on February 13, 2021, just over a month after the January 6 incident at the US Capitol.
At the time, Cassidy released the following statement after the trial concluded, noting that ‘our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person. I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty.’
Republican Representative Julia Letlow, who was elected in 2021 to fill the seat of her late husband, is Trump’s new candidate of choice December 11, 2025
Senator Bill Cassidy (pictured in September) previously voted to convict Trump ‘on a single article of impeachment charging him with “incitement of insurrection”‘
Nevertheless, Cassidy was selected to chair the powerful Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) committee after Republicans retook control of the Senate last year, and he has played a key part in enacting Trump’s agenda this year in his best efforts to get back into the President’s good graces.
Cassidy, a doctor by trade, cast a critical vote during the confirmation process of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the role of Health and Human Services Secretary, and has since done his best to hold Kennedy’s feet to the fire in congressional oversight hearings without angering the president.
After Trump’s endorsement of Letlow, Cassidy’s campaign account posted the following statement on X, sharing his intention to stay in the race: ‘I’m proudly running for re-election as a principled conservative who gets things done for the people of Louisiana. If Congresswoman Letlow decides to run I am confident I will win.’
Letlow’s own response to Trump Saturday night was slightly more cryptic and did not appear to be a firm confirmation of her entry into the race.
US President Donald Trump’s supporters gather outside the Capitol building in Washington D.C., United States on January 06, 2021
‘I’m honored to have President Trump’s endorsement and trust. My mission is clear: to ensure the nation our children inherit is safer and stronger,’ Letlow noted in an X post, adding that ‘this United States Senate seat belongs to the people of Louisiana, because we deserve conservative leadership that will not waver.’
Despite Trump winning Louisiana with over 60 percent of the vote in 2024, 58.46 percent in 2020, and 58.09 percent in 2016, Cassidy’s voting record has been far from ruby red.
During the Biden administration, Cassidy was one of 15 GOP Senators who caved on the Second Amendment and sided with Democrats to deliver one of, if not the biggest, wins of President Biden’s tenure, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
Whether Letlow decides to enter the Senate race or not, Trump’s decision to usher in a challenger to Cassidy has undoubtedly thrown a wrench into a state Republicans need to win this year to hang onto the Senate majority at a time when Democrats are prepared to play in races across the country with serious challengers.
