Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) won Saturday’s Louisiana Senate GOP runoff, concluding what has been one of the most contentious Republican primaries of the cycle.
Trump-backed Letlow was declared the winner by the Associated Press and led Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming with nearly 45% of the vote to his roughly 28%.
The primary draws to an end the race to oust Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who finished third in May.
Letlow, who also won the first-round primary last month by 16.5 points over Fleming and 20 points over Cassidy, is all but certain to win the November general election against the Democratic nominee in the deeply red state. Democrats Jamie Davis, a farmer, and Gary Crockett, an entrepreneur, also faced a primary runoff on Saturday.
The third-term congresswoman launched her campaign in January with a preemptive endorsement from President Donald Trump, who snubbed Cassidy over accusations the second-term senator was insufficiently loyal for voting to convict him of impeachment for the 2021 Capitol riot.
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Cassidy’s defeat was one of several Republican incumbents this year who were on the losing end of Trump-endorsed challengers. His power in the Senate atop the chamber’s health committee and bipartisan respect as an earnest lawmaker proved inadequate to overcome his impeachment vote and Trump’s influence among conservative Louisiana voters.
Cassidy and Trump exchanged harsh words over the Iran war in a tense shouting match during a closed-door Senate GOP lunch this week, a conflict the senator has sought to end by helping pass a war powers resolution. At one point, Cassidy called the president “brother” and said the feedback he got from “several senators” following the spat was encouraging, but he ultimately lamented losing his temper.
