President Donald Trump is flexing his endorsement power in the 2026 midterm election cycle, with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) the latest incumbent to fall to the president’s ire and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in the president’s sights.Cassidy, a two-term senator who has served on Capitol Hill for over 17 years, placed third in Louisiana‘s Senate primary on Saturday, bucking his reelection campaign before he could even make it to a primary runoff. The result does not bode well for other incumbents, such as Massie, who have earned themselves a challenge from Trump-backed candidates.
Cassidy’s 2021 vote to convict Trump on his impeachment charges in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol spawned his fall from grace and Trump’s bid to oust him. Trump endorsed Cassidy’s challenger, Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA), who ultimately placed first in the general primary election.
Letlow garnered 44.8% of the vote, state Treasurer John Fleming placed second with 28.3% of the vote, and Cassidy came in third with 24.8% of the vote. Letlow and Fleming will now head to a runoff election for the Republican nomination on June 17.
In Louisiana, a deep-red Bible Belt state that voted 60.2% for Trump in 2024, it’s not surprising that a Trump endorsement could dramatically swing a primary election. Cassidy’s prior election results had given him a large buffer — he won in 2020 with 59.3% of the vote — but this year, Trump’s finger tipped the scale enough to eliminate Cassidy’s margins and his entire reelection bid.
