John Fleming Challenges Trump-Endorsed Candidate in Louisiana Senate Primary

President Donald Trump endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow to challenge Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy in the Republican primary, citing Cassidy’s vote to convict him during his second impeachment trial and recent disagreements over health policy nominations. Louisiana state treasurer John Fleming has refused requests to leave the race, ensuring the contest will almost certainly advance to a June runoff, according to reports.

Fleming, who is largely self-funding his campaign, said he resisted three entreaties from the White House to suspend his candidacy before the February 13 filing deadline. He told CNN the White House offered him “some accommodation to me, maybe a job” and that he received an additional appeal within the seven-day period after the deadline when candidates could still withdraw.

Fleming also said he received a call from Ralph Abraham, then preparing to leave his post at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asking if he would like to succeed him. Fleming first won a House seat in 2008 and served until 2017. During that time he helped start the House Freedom Caucus.

He ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2016, later worked in the first Trump administration in the White House as assistant to the president for planning and implementation, and was elected state treasurer in 2023. He announced his challenge to Cassidy in December 2024, citing the senator’s impeachment vote related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Cassidy was one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump and remains one of three still in the chamber. Trump carried Louisiana by 22 percentage points in the 2024 election. Cassidy, a physician and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, voted to confirm Robert F.

Kennedy Jr. as health secretary but has criticized some of Kennedy’s decisions and helped block Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means.

Letlow’s campaign has spent the final weeks attacking Fleming more than Cassidy. A super PAC supporting Letlow has spent about 10 times more on advertising targeting Fleming than Cassidy, according to AdImpact. ” Cassidy has largely ignored Fleming and focused his attacks on Letlow.

After Fleming and Letlow participated in a debate last week that Cassidy skipped, his campaign issued a statement promoting the contest between his two challengers as an escalating “cage match” and included images of popcorn. A Cassidy adviser, Mark Harris, told reporters Monday that Fleming was “putting on a hard charge” in the final days but that the campaign would remain focused on Letlow.

The same day, Letlow’s campaign called for Fleming to resign from a company for which he previously lobbied. Fleming said his adviser role with the McKeon Group, for which he earns about $1,000 a month, is proper.

Trump initially held back criticism of Cassidy when endorsing Letlow but later called him a “very disloyal person” after the surgeon general nomination failed. Cassidy has sought to reframe the primary as about “the present and future,” noting that Trump has signed into law four bills in which he had a leading role.

“I don’t really think President Trump likes me that much, but we work really well together,” Cassidy told reporters last week. Letlow and Fleming have both said they would not have voted to convict Trump after January 6. ” Trump’s support for Letlow has placed him at odds with Senate GOP leaders who are backing the incumbent Cassidy, as is their standard practice.

The Senate seat in Louisiana is expected to remain in Republican hands in November regardless of the nominee. There is little independent polling in the primary and no clear front-runner. The contest serves as an early gauge of Trump’s influence over the Republican base ahead of a higher-profile primary test in Kentucky three days later.