MAGA Reckoning: Indiana Purge Was Just the Beginning for This RINO Senator

Liberty Check

• President Trump targets Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana GOP primary after backing successful purge of Indiana state senators who defied redistricting push
• Cassidy voted to convict Trump during impeachment trial and opposed MAHA movement reforms, drawing ire from Kennedy allies and America First conservatives
• Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow leads challenge as Louisiana switches to separate party primaries, guaranteeing more conservative, pro-Trump electorate

After delivering a crushing blow to five Indiana state senators who dared oppose his redistricting agenda, President Donald Trump has locked onto his next target: Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump during the 2021 impeachment trial, now faces the political fight of his life in Saturday’s GOP Senate primary. The stakes couldn’t be higher for a senator who betrayed conservative voters when they needed loyalty most.

President Trump and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry are backing GOP Rep. Julia Letlow in the Senate primary. Former Rep. John Fleming, who served in Trump’s first administration, is also in the race. If no candidate reaches 50% of the primary vote, the top two finishers will face off in a June 27 runoff election.

The primary represents the latest test of Trump’s endorsement power and his commanding influence over the Republican Party. After the Indiana purge demonstrated the president’s political reach, establishment Republicans are taking notice.

Cassidy was one of only seven Senate Republicans who voted in early 2021 to convict Trump after the House impeachment related to the Jan. 6 Capitol incident. Trump was acquitted by the Senate, but conservative voters haven’t forgotten Cassidy’s betrayal.

While Cassidy has recently supported Trump’s agenda and nominees, including voting to confirm Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the damage may already be done. Actions speak louder than belated attempts at reconciliation.

Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again movement are now seeking accountability. Cassidy, a doctor, has been skeptical of Kennedy’s push to reform the nation’s health policies, including efforts to review vaccine recommendations.

Kennedy allies blamed Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, for helping sink the surgeon general nomination of Casey Means, a close Kennedy ally and top MAHA advocate. Cassidy refused to bring the nomination to a committee vote.

Trump has blasted the senator as a “very disloyal person.”

On the eve of the primary, the president took to social media to praise Letlow as a “Highly Respected America First Congresswoman.”

Making Cassidy’s path even more difficult, Louisiana now runs separate party primaries in the Senate race, replacing the jungle primary system. That guarantees a more conservative and pro-Trump electorate for the GOP nomination—bad news for establishment-friendly candidates.

Cassidy is highlighting his record over two terms in the Senate delivering for Louisiana, one of the nation’s poorest states. He’s showcased his support for Louisiana’s oil and gas industry, which accounts for roughly 15% of the state’s workforce.

“When people ask things such as, can you work with President Trump, I point out that he has signed into law four bills that I wrote or negotiated,” the senator said in a primary eve interview. “We continue to work together, by the way.”

Cassidy touted that he’s “a conservative senator who delivers.”

In trying to avoid becoming the first elected Republican senator in nearly a decade and a half to be ousted in a primary, Cassidy and an allied super PAC have spent more than $20 million on ads. That total exceeds what Letlow and Fleming have spent combined.

Some of those ads have knocked Letlow over her past support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs during her tenure at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Cassidy argued that Republican voters are “concerned about her shifting position on DEI. She was all in for DEI.”

Defending her record, Letlow explained that “back in 2020 whenever DEI was introduced to us, we had no idea what it was back then, and I quickly witnessed it. I was in higher education at the time. I quickly witnessed the left completely hijack it, turn it into this Marxist leftist indoctrination of our children. And so, when I got to Congress for the last five years, I’ve been fighting against it.”

She charged that the criticism from Cassidy and Fleming over DEI represents “all baseless attacks, desperate attacks.”

Letlow won her congressional seat in 2021, after her husband, Luke Letlow, died six days after being sworn into the U.S. House following his 2020 election victory. She was backed by Trump even before she entered the race.

“Not only did he encourage me to get into this race, but also to have his complete and total endorsement has been, wow, the honor of a lifetime,” Letlow said.

Letlow has taken aim at Cassidy for his bipartisan efforts in the Senate, including his vote for the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law—a signature domestic achievement for then-President Joe Biden. Conservative voters remember who sided with Biden’s agenda.

Asked about her criticism, Cassidy said “people want someone who can deliver for Louisiana. The Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act has brought $13.5 billion to Louisiana for roads and bridges and high-speed internet, and along the way creating a lot of good paying jobs. My opponent opposed that bill.”

Fleming, who served as a White House deputy chief of staff during Trump’s first term, has argued that he’s the most conservative candidate in the GOP Senate primary.

“They see me clearly MAGA,” Fleming said, referring to Louisiana Republicans. “I served in his entire first administration at various capacities. I was one of the first congressmen that endorsed him in 2016.”

Fleming claimed that Letlow is “not the prototype for a Trump endorsement. She’s much more like a Democrat.”

Fleming has apparently become enough of a threat to Letlow that a super PAC supporting the congresswoman started running ads attacking him.

But Trump’s endorsement carries enormous weight in a state he carried by 22 points in his 2024 election victory.

“It’s the most powerful endorsement in the world,” Letlow said, adding that Louisiana Republicans “are huge fans of the president.”

The Louisiana primary comes a week and a half after Indiana’s primary, where Trump-backed challengers ousted five state senators who had defied the president over redistricting. The political world watched closely because it was the first of several major tests this month of Trump’s endorsement power in GOP nomination showdowns.

The president cleared his first hurdle with ease, sending a message to Republicans nationwide.

Voters in Louisiana will also cast ballots in primary contests for State Supreme Court, Public Service Commission and state school board, along with five proposed state constitutional amendments.

The primaries for U.S. House seats were postponed by Gov. Landry after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s current congressional district map.

Republican state senators in Louisiana on Thursday advanced a plan to eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black congressional seats ahead of the midterms. Louisiana’s state House will likely vote on the map next week. The U.S. House primaries are being postponed until November.

The Constitution must be defended.