Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy could be Trump's next Republican ouster

The president's revenge tour against GOP dissenters goes through Louisiana, where incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy faces two MAGA rivals.Show Caption

President Donald Trump is looking to catapult another Republican dissenter out of office in a primary election season that has showcased his influence among rank-and-file conservatives.Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy is trailing two GOP challengers who argue the 68-year-old physician too often undermines the administration.Even though Cassidy has received high marks from right-leaning groups in the past, polls ahead of the May 16 election show Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming leading Cassidy in the staunchly conservative state.Various polls paid for by the candidates have shown a mixed bag, but an independent survey by Emerson College released in April showed Cassidy coming in third with 21% behind Fleming at 28% and Letlow at 27%. About 22% were undecided, the poll found.The two-term senator has been one of the few Republicans in Congress who has chastised administration officials in public hearings, including criticizing some of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decisions after reluctantly voting to confirm him in 2025.Cassidy's most egregious offense to the MAGA base, opponents and experts say, is being one of the seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial in 2021 over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol."They see it is a betrayal. This is a very Trump-friendly state," Fleming, a former member of Congress who served in the first Trump administration, told USA TODAY in a May 12 interview."Bill Cassidy would be considered a conservative in Massachusetts or New Hampshire," he added. "But in Louisiana, no, he's not considered conservative at all."Letlow said in a May 13 interview that Cassidy "spent four years undermining" the president, including a brief flirtation with a third party bid under the "No Labels" banner in 2024."If I ever have a difference of opinion with President Trump, I will definitely pick up the phone and call him. I believe that's how you handle it," Letlow told USA TODAY.The Cassidy campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment.Even as Trump faces rising gas prices and an unpopular war in Iran, which have sunk his approval ratings and stirred up criticism from prominent MAGA figures online, he is on a winning streak in GOP primaries.Former Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene resigned from office after being excoriated by Trump for expressing displeasure with the administration over Iran and other issues. Trump's endorsed candidate, Clay Fuller, won the special election to replace her in April.The president helped crush five out of seven Indiana legislators in a May 5 primary who defied his demands to redraw congressional lines.The president and his allies are also similarly looking to oust Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, who is trailing a Trump-backed primary challenger in a new survey released less than a week before that May 19 election.Ben Hogan, a political science professor at Louisiana State University, said Cassidy has been a consistent conservative in Washington who has brought millions in tax dollars back to the Pelican State. But the Senate primary race has morphed into a referendum on standing by Trump, who has repeatedly called out the senator's lack of loyalty."At the time, he was voting in that way because he was indeed offended by what he saw in Trump's behavior," Hogan said about the impeachment trial. "But Cassidy also thought, as a lot of people did, that Trump was in the rearview mirror."'Haunted him': Trump's 2026 revenge tour focuses on Cassidy's dissentTrump's popularity has declined ahead of the midterm elections. Roughly two-thirds of voters disapprove of his handling of Iran and the same goes for the economy and inflation, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.Among Republicans, however, Trump remains highly popular with a steady 85% approval rating in that poll, which experts say explains why almost the entire Louisiana GOP has turned against Cassidy."The MAGA movement did not end after Trump's first term, and the Republican Party here in the state censured Cassidy for his conviction vote," Hogan said."A lot of people haven't gotten over that, and that has been something that has certainly haunted him and a lot of things since that time remind us of that."Last summer Cassidy aired concerns after Kennedy fired all 17 members of a vaccine advisory panel called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. Kennedy appointed eight new members, including some who have been skeptical about vaccines.Cassidy was a key swing vote during Kennedy's confirmation process last year, and he admitted "struggling with" the nomination before ultimately voting in favor of the president's controversial choice. But more recently, the Louisiana Republican forced the withdrawal of Trump's candidate for surgeon general, Casey Means, after grilling her over a lack of support for vaccines.The president noticed and called Cassidy "a very disloyal person" in an April 30 social media post. Trump said his "intransigence and political games," blocked Means from getting the job.Asked how members of Congress should handle disagreements with the administration, Letlow said there must be "mutual respect for the person you're working with" and for the voters who send you to Washington.Letlow, first elected to Congress in 2020, was anointed with Trump's endorsement when he called her a "total winner" in March. He said she'd help his administration with energy development, lowering taxes and eliminating regulations.The 45-year-old congresswoman has also earned endorsements from other key Louisiana Republicans close to the president, such as Attorney General Liz Murrill and Gov. Jeff Landry, who called out the senator's divergences."Cassidy has never stood up once for us," Landry told The Shrevport Times, part of the USA TODAY Network.That has helped supercharge Letlow's candidacy and allowed her to keep pace with Cassidy's fundraising in the first three months of the year where she raked in about $8 million compared to his $8.5 million.Rivals tout MAGA credentials and trade jabs, accusationsEach candidate has tried mightily to carve out space showing conservative voters they're in sync with the president, which is especially important for Cassidy.The senator holds an 86% rating from the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, and is being backed by GOP leadership through National Republican Senatorial Committee, which endorsed him last year."From advancing health care solutions to helping pass President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill, Dr. Cassidy is essential to our Senate Majority," Republican Leader John Thune, of South Dakota, said in a statement.Cassidy's campaign has focused heavily on legislative wins and his influence in Washington, such as measures he's sponsored that have been signed by Trump like fighting against fentanyl addiction and lowering prescription drug prices. He also touts allies in the state legislature who argue that him losing will diminish the state's influence in the Senate.Outside groups, such as a pro-Cassidy super PAC named Louisiana Freedom Fund, have been slamming Letlow with a series of attack ads. Those spots claim she voted with former President Joe Biden more than any other Louisiana Republican, which the Letlow campaign denies.Republican consultant Liz Mair said Cassidy's profile fits the conventional definition of a conservative but that Trump and the MAGA movement have dramatically altered GOP politics.More than defying Trump, she said, a fundamental reason Cassidy is in trouble this year is because he's taken traditional positions on a wide range of issues that are now contrary to the populist movement, particularly concerning health care.Mair said he has alienated the MAGA crowd by siding with the pharmaceutical industry on a range of policy debates, including drug discounts for rural hospitals and vaccines."That might have worked just fine back when he was first elected, but the times have changed and he's now just too far out of step with today's GOP," she said. "And that's why his polls look weak."No candidate is expected to clear the 50% threshold to avoid a June 27 runoff between the top two finishers.Fleming and Letlow haven't spared each other from attacks either. Letlow called out Fleming, for instance, over refusing to ditch the Senate filibuster that is standing in the way of getting the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, or SAVE America Act through Congress.The measure, which Trump supports, seeks to overhaul U.S. elections ahead of the midterms and has passed the House. But it remains stalled in the Senate because it lacks the needed 60-vote threshold to overcome a Democratic filibuster."If the filibuster is the only thing standing between the American people and secure elections, then it is time to get rid of it," Letlow told USA TODAY. "My opponent, John Fleming, has flat-out said he would not support nixing the filibuster to pass the SAVE Act. And Louisianans don't want a Senator who won't fight for secure elections."Fleming said given potential holdouts it remains unclear if the GOP-controlled Senate has the necessary 51 votes to pass the measure should the filibuster be eliminated. He also warned that filibuster elimination could harm Republicans in the future."We need to be very careful about taking drastic measures that may remove the power and the voice of the minority, which sometimes is going to be Republicans," he said.Fleming, who served as a White House deputy chief of staff in 2020, also has alleged he received calls from the administration encouraging him to drop out of the race and take a job at the Centers for Disease Control. He then said he later received a call from Trump directly."I reminded him that no one had been more loyal to him than me," Fleming told USA TODAY. "And he finally said, 'Well, you're fantastic. Why didn't you call me before?' And that's when I had to tell him, 'Sir, everybody around you blocked me, my access to you.'"The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the alleged job offer or conversation with the president.Letlow denied any knowledge of a job offer for his rival to drop out, calling Fleming a "conspiracy theorist."Contributing: Greg Hilburn