The Democrats’ strongest ally in the U.S. Senate GOP conference when it comes to their decade-long quest to impeach President Donald Trump faces possible elimination from his seat at the hands of primary voters in Louisiana on Saturday night.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), supposedly a Republican, joined all the Senate Democrats and a handful of “Republicans” five years ago in a whimsical twist of fate when he voted to convict Trump on his second impeachment in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Cassidy is one of just three U.S. Senate Republicans voted to convict Trump remaining in the chamber, and now voters in Louisiana get a shot to remove this establishment figure once and for all. Trump has endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) in a three-way primary against Cassidy, and former Rep. John Fleming (R-LA)–the State Treasurer–is also running. If no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, the race will go to a runoff–and that’s a real possibility if not a likelihood on Saturday night–but it’s actually possibly that Cassidy gets eliminated on Saturday even if there’s a runoff because the polling has showed all three candidates bunched up near each other.
If Cassidy goes down–either on Saturdya or later in a runoff–then it would be the first time a sitting GOP senator has lost in 14 years. The last time a GOP senator lost a primary was when Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) lost to Richard Mourdock. Mourdock would go on to lose the general election to now former Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), but he represents the last time a GOP senator lost a primary. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) also defeated an incumbent GOP senator, Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT), but he did so at the state convention in Utah not in a primary. It is extremely rare, in other words, to see sitting senators in the Republican Party lose primary elections.
Cassidy is not the only shot conservative outsiders have at taking down the establishment’s picks this year, either. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton continues to lead incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in Texas, just over a week out from the GOP primary runoff later this month.
Polls close in Louisiana at 9:00 p.m. ET. Follow along here for live results and analysis.
UPDATE 9:42 p.m. ET:
With 25 percent reporting now according to the New York Times, things look worse and worse for Cassidy. Letlow maintains a lead at 43.9 percent and Fleming is maintaining his second place position at 30.4 percent. Cassidy is stuck in third down at just 23.6 percent.
UPDATE 9:16 p.m. ET:
Early results look terrible for Cassidy. With 15 percent reporting, he is deep in third place with just 24.2 percent–with Letlow way out front at 45.2 percent and Fleming in the middle at 28.1 percent. Cassidy needs a miracle to turn this around.
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