Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) and Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming ousted incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in the Republican primary election in Louisiana on Saturday.
Letlow won more than 44.8 percent of the vote, while Fleming received 28.3 percent, and Cassidy received 24.8 percent, according to the results after 99 percent of the votes were tallied.
Letlow and Fleming face a runoff election on June 27 after neither received more than 50 percent of the vote.
The winner of the runoff election will likely go on to represent the state in the U.S. Senate. The Republican-leaning state has not had a Democrat senator since 2015.
“Congratulations to Congresswoman Julia Letlow on a fantastic race, beating an Incumbent Senator by Record Setting Numbers,” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday night.
Trump endorsed Letlow in January, before she launched her campaign, in a bid to dislodge Cassidy. He called the incumbent senator disloyal in a social media post on Saturday morning for running on a Trump platform and then voting to impeach the president.
Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators who voted to impeach Trump after the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump was ultimately acquitted, and Cassidy has maintained that he is an effective ally to the president and the party despite their past differences.
In addition to a strained relationship with Trump, Cassidy has been a vocal critic of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., both during his confirmation process and for policies Kennedy has implemented in his tenure, such as changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.
Cassidy chaired the Senate Health Committee during Kennedy's confirmation hearing. He considered opposing Kennedy, but voted to support him after the two agreed on several commitments, including that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would not take down language from its website stating that vaccines do not cause autism.
The pre-RFK phrase “vaccines do not cause Autism” remains on the page with an asterisk that states, “the header ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ has not been removed due to an agreement” with Cassidy.
Cassidy was also accused by Trump of blocking former surgeon general nominee Casey Means, whom the president withdrew and instead nominated radiologist Nicole Saphier. Trump questioned Cassidy’s loyalty following that swap.
A group aligned with Kennedy committed $1 million to help Letlow defeat Cassidy.
The Louisiana primary was upended by an April 29 U.S. Supreme Court decision that invalidated part of the Voting Right Act. State leaders decided to postpone the U.S. House primaries until the district lines are redrawn. The Senate primary proceeded as planned.