A well-known Republican senator from Louisiana who voted to convict Donald Trump during the Senate’s January 6 impeachment trial is set to face a tough primary challenge.
Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming, who held several roles in the Trump administration, announced in a press release on Wednesday that he will challenge Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who is up for reelection in 2026.
“A number of Republicans walked away from President Trump in the last year of his first term,” Fleming, who also served four terms in the House during which he co-founded the Freedom Caucus, said in a press release. “Senator Cassidy has failed the people of Louisiana.”
“The opportunity to stand with him [Trump] for the principles of America First is why I seek to serve the citizens of Louisiana in the United States Senate,” Fleming added.
Senator Bill Cassidy, the incoming chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial in January 2021. Cassidy has also declined to endorse Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
While Cassidy has not officially announced a reelection bid for a third term, he told USA Today in November that he is “obviously working hard toward 2026.” According to Federal Election Commission records, he has over $5.8 million in campaign funds to fend off potential challengers.
In a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation, a spokesperson for Cassidy highlighted the senator’s legislative achievements.
“This week, Senator Cassidy met with President Trump’s VA [Veterans Affairs] nominee, secured tax relief for the victims of natural disasters in Louisiana and elsewhere, passed bills to reduce maternal mortality and to make it easier to donate to Veterans organizations, pushed Chuck Schumer to hold a vote to repeal WEP [Windfall Elimination Penalty] and GPO [Government Pension Offset], and continues to work on important legislation,” a Cassidy spokesperson told the DCNF. “The time will come to focus on the campaign, and when that happens, he will see who is still in the race.”
Earlier this year, Trump took to Truth Social to criticize Cassidy, questioning his loyalty to the president-elect.
“One of the worst Senators in the United States Senate is, without question, Bill Cassidy, A TOTAL FLAKE, Republican though he may be,” Trump wrote in April. “He campaigned in the Great State of Louisiana on TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP, and was absolutely thrilled when he was able to get my very important Endorsement. His advertisements were all about ‘TRUMP,’ and our relationship, which basically didn’t exist in that I did not know him well. In any event, he easily won Re-Election. Cassidy is a total ‘stiff,’ but Louisiana didn’t need him to protect them, because they had ME, 100%!”
“Nevertheless, when the Democrats’ Impeachment Hoax started, this Lamebrain Senator actually voted against me. He thought it was so ‘cool,’ until he got home, and was literally pelted with everything that could be used for such an inglorious happening, especially words, with lots of foul language thrown in,” Trump added.
