Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who voted to convict U.S. Donald Trump follwoing the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, lost his bid for a third term on Saturday, as Louisiana Republicans instead rallied behind the candidate endorsed by the president.
Cassidy failed to make the June 27 runoff for the Senate seat, trailing Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.), who ran with Trump’s backing, and former congressman John Fleming, the Louisiana state treasurer and a former White House deputy chief of staff under Trump.
With more than 95% of the votes counted, neither candidate received more than 50% of the vote, forcing the runoff.
Letlow had 179,876 votes (44.8%) and Fleming 113,428 votes (28.3%), ahead of Cassidy’s 99,479 (24.8%).
“Bill Cassidy, after falsely using his ‘relationship’ with me during his political career and winning elections because of it, voted to impeach me on preposterous charges that were fake then and now are criminally insane,” Trump stated on his social media site.
“His disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of legend, and it’s nice to see that his political career is over,” the president stated.
AIPAC lists both Cassidy and Letlow on part of its website, where it fundraises for current members of Congress.
A medical doctor, Cassidy chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and was part of a bipartisan Senate delegation that visited Israel soon after Oct. 7 to show support for the Jewish state.
He has led Senate probes of antisemitic groups and of schools that the panel accused of inadequate responses to Jew-hatred on campus. He has also been a vocal critic of the Iranian regime and of Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, who has said that he would have the Israeli prime minister arrested in the city and whose spokeswoman said that synagogues violate international law when they host pro-Israel events.
Cassidy has voted for arms sales to Israel, has decried the International Criminal Court’s efforts to arrest the Israeli prime minister and has repeatedly defended Israel since Oct. 7.
Letlow has also defended Israel in public statements. In 2025, Fleming said that “AIPAC has never supported me, but I am a friend and ally of Israel.”
The primary results suggest that Trump’s hold remains strong over the Republican Party, even as opinion polls indicate that his national approval ratings are dipping below 40% and that Democrats are favored to take back the U.S. House of Representatives in the fall midterms. That would end the GOP governing trifecta of the White House, Senate and House.
In his concession speech, Cassidy indirectly took a parting shot at the president.
“When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to,” the senator told supporters. “But you don’t pout. You don’t whine. You don’t claim the election was stolen. You don’t manufacture some excuse.”
“You thank the voters for the privilege of representing the state or the country for as long as you’ve had that privilege,” he said. (Trump has said that a prior election was stolen from him.)
Letlow, on the other hand, praised the president. “I want to say thank you to a very special man, who you all know, the best president this country has ever had, President Donald Trump,” she said at her victory party.
Cassidy was one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump in 2021 and prevent him from running for president again after the House voted to impeach him for his role on Jan. 6.
Trump supporters overran the U.S. Capitol to try to block the peaceful transition of power to former Vice President Joe Biden, who had won the 2020 presidential election.
One of the rioters wore a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt featuring a logo of the notorious Nazi concentration camp.
After returning to the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, Trump pardoned all of those involved in the Jan. 6 riot, including those who attacked and injured dozens of police officers trying to protect members of Congress who had gathered inside the Capitol to ratify the state-certified election results.
Trump also has sought to take revenge on the lawmakers, prosecutors and others who tried to hold him accountable for the insurrection.
“Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about our Constitution,” Cassidy said on Saturday night. “If someone doesn’t understand that and attempts to control others through using the levers of power, they are about serving themselves, they’re not about serving us, and that person does not qualify to be a leader.”
