Julia Letlow wins Louisiana's Republican Senate runoff to replace Bill Cassidy

Rep. Julia Letlow won the Republican nomination for Louisiana's U.S. Senate seat on Saturday, defeating state Treasurer John Fleming in a runoff and clearing the last Republican hurdle to replacing Sen. Bill Cassidy, who lost his bid for renomination in May.

The Associated Press projected Letlow the winner Saturday night. In returns reported by the AP, she led Fleming by about 55% to 45%. The race had been rated close going into the vote.

Letlow advances to the November general election against Democrat Jamie Davis, a crop farmer from northeast Louisiana who won his party's primary over Gary Crockett. Louisiana has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 2008, and Letlow starts the general election as the favorite to keep the seat in Republican hands.

How the seat came open

Cassidy did not reach the runoff. In the May 16 primary, Letlow finished first with about 45% of the vote, Fleming took 28%, and Cassidy ran third with about 25%. No candidate cleared a majority, so the top two advanced.

The contest ran under Louisiana's closed party primary system, adopted for congressional elections beginning this year, which replaced the state's longtime all-candidate "jungle" primary and sorted the field into separate Republican and Democratic races.

Cassidy's impeachment vote

Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial in February 2021, on the charge of inciting the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The Senate acquitted Trump, 57 to 43, short of the two-thirds needed to convict. After his primary loss, Cassidy said he did not regret the vote.

Trump's endorsement

Trump endorsed Letlow, and she made his support central to her campaign. After the race was called, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "Julia Letlow WON in Louisiana, beating conclusively a very strong and smart opponent. Congratulations to Julia. She will be a truly GREAT Senator!"

Fleming, a former U.S. representative who served in the first Trump administration, also ran as a Trump ally. Both campaigns spent heavily on attack ads in the closing weeks, and turnout was low, as is typical for a standalone summer runoff.

What comes next

National attention on the Louisiana race this year focused less on November than on whether a Republican who had broken with Trump could survive a primary. Cassidy could not. Letlow now stands to give the Senate Republican conference another member aligned with the president from a reliably red state.

Letlow has represented Louisiana's 5th Congressional District since 2021. She won the seat in a special election after her husband, Luke Letlow, who had been elected to it, died of complications from COVID-19 before he could take office.