Welcome to a special edition of At the Races! Throughout the 2026 primary season, watch for these updates from the CQ Roll Call campaign team on what you need to know for election day. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here.
By Mary Ellen McIntire and Daniela Altimari
When Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy voted to convict Donald Trump in a 2021 impeachment trial following the Jan. 6 insurrection, Trump had decamped from Washington with the future of the GOP unclear in the early days of the Biden administration.
Five years later, Trump is back in the White House having cemented his hold on the GOP and Cassidy is facing voters for the first time since that fateful vote.
Saturday’s Republican Senate primary pits Cassidy against Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow, state Treasurer John Fleming and businessman Mark Spencer. If no one wins a majority, the top two vote-getters will advance to a June runoff, a position that polls show Cassidy is at risk of missing out on and that helped land him in the top spot on CQ Roll Call’s latest list of the most vulnerable incumbent senators.
