This Republican says he’s Trump’s ally. He’s getting in the way of Trump’s revenge in a key Louisiana Senate primary

By Patrick Svitek, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump wants to take down Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment and has been a critic of parts of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Trump endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow to run against Cassidy and most other challengers dropped out.

There’s just one problem: John Fleming.

The Louisiana state treasurer, who is largely self-funding his campaign, has remained a stubborn force in the race, complicating Trump’s revenge plot and making it a near-certainty that Saturday’s primary will head to a June runoff. In doing so, Fleming is testing Trump’s political operation and the power the second-term president has over the Republican base.

“What people expect from an endorsement from President Trump is really a candidate like me, but what they got was a candidate very similar to Cassidy,” Fleming said in an interview.

Letlow’s campaign has spent the final weeks of the primary attacking him more than the incumbent, even as Cassidy pummels her on the airwaves. A super PAC supporting her has spent about 10 times more money targeting Fleming in its advertising compared to Cassidy, according to AdImpact.

“Louisiana Republicans know Julia Letlow is President Trump’s choice in this race, while Fleming is a desperate career politician trying to lie his way into another office,” said Katherine Thordahl, a spokeswoman for Letlow’s campaign, in a statement.

Cassidy appears delighted. After Fleming and Letlow participated in a debate last week that he skipped, Cassidy’s campaign issued a statement promoting the escalating “cage match” between his two challengers, complete with images of popcorn.

The Senate seat in deep-red Louisiana is expected to stay in Republican hands in November regardless of who the party nominates. But Saturday’s primary is a gauge of Trump’s sway over the GOP at a crucial time, coming three days before a higher-profile test of his revenge in Kentucky against Rep. Thomas Massie.

There is little independent polling in Louisiana’s primary and no clear front-runner despite the president’s involvement.

Cassidy has mostly ignored Fleming and trained his attacks on Letlow, saying he sees the race as hers to lose. A Cassidy adviser, Mark Harris, told reporters Monday that Fleming was “putting on a hard charge” in the final days of the primary but that the Cassidy campaign would remain focused on Letlow.

Claims of job offers and endorsements withdrawn

Fleming first won a House seat in 2008 and served until 2017, a tenure during which he helped start the far-right House Freedom Caucus. Fleming waged an unsuccessful Senate bid in 2016 and then went to work in the first Trump administration, ultimately working in the White House as assistant to the president for planning and implementation. He was elected Louisiana state treasurer in 2023.

Fleming announced in December 2024 that he would run against Cassidy, citing the senator’s vote to convict Trump over the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Cassidy was one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump, but one of only three left in the chamber, along with Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. Among them, Cassidy represents the most pro-Trump state. The president carried Louisiana by 22 percentage points in 2024, his widest margin there through three campaigns.

Cassidy issued a brief statement on his vote at the time, saying: “Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person. I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty.”

A physician who has advocated for vaccines, Cassidy has had new tension with the White House as the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. While he voted to confirm Trump’s nominee for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cassidy has criticized some of Kennedy’s decisions at his agency and was blamed by Trump for sinking his recent nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means.

Cassidy dinged the administration again on Tuesday after Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary announced his resignation. Cassidy said on X that Makary was “part of a broader symptom of an administration that has not paid attention to pro-life issues.”

Fleming told CNN he resisted three entreaties from the White House to suspend his campaign before the February 13 filing deadline. The White House offered “some accommodation to me, maybe a job,” Fleming said, adding that he fielded another appeal to drop out within the seven-day period after the deadline when candidates could still back out.

He said he also got a call around that time from Ralph Abraham, a fellow Louisiana Republican who was about to leave his post at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and wanted to know if Fleming would like to succeed him. Days after Abraham left the CDC, he was named chair of Letlow’s campaign.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Abraham could not be reached for comment but denied Fleming’s claim when the candidate first made it in March.

Fleming’s continued presence in the race has worn on some people close to Trump. One of them, adviser Alex Bruesewitz, said last Thursday on social media that Fleming should “do the right thing” and drop out and endorse Letlow. The same day, Letlow’s campaign started calling on Fleming to resign from a company for which he previously lobbied.

Fleming said his position as an adviser with the McKeon Group, for which he says he earns about $1,000 a month, is proper.

He can count on supporters like Ruth Pope-Johnston, a longtime GOP activist who volunteers for his campaign. She comes from the small town where he started his first medical clinic, long before he ran for office.

“John Fleming has my vote and has had my vote from Day 1 and I’ve never wavered from that,” she said. Not only that, she added, Fleming “has my undying respect.”

‘I don’t really think President Trump likes me that much’

Trump, who initially held back criticism of Cassidy in endorsing Letlow, unloaded on Cassidy after Means’ nomination for surgeon general failed, calling him a “very disloyal person” and accusing him of “intransigence and political games.”

On the campaign trail and in media appearances, Cassidy has sought to reframe Saturday’s primary as about “the present and future,” touting that Trump has signed into law four bills in which he had a leading role.

“I don’t really think President Trump likes me that much, but we work really well together,” Cassidy told reporters last week, recalling a recent conversation with a voter at Home Depot who asked about his relationship with the president.

In backing Letlow, Trump placed his bet on more of a political newcomer than her opponents. Letlow was working in higher education when her husband, Rep. Luke Letlow, died of Covid-19 in 2020 and she won a special election to fill his seat.

Letlow and Fleming have said they would not have voted to convict Trump after January 6. Letlow said during her recent debate with Fleming that it was the “worst mistake that Cassidy could have made” and Louisiana voters “have never forgotten it.”

But Trump’s endorsement of Letlow has put the president at odds with Senate GOP leaders, who are backing Cassidy, as is standard practice for incumbents. Senate Majority Leader John Thune headlined a fundraiser for Cassidy in Baton Rouge in January, days before Trump backed Letlow. But national Republicans have otherwise not been deeply involved in the primary, confident Cassidy has enough money on his own and that the seat will remain in Republican hands no matter who comes out of the primary.

Cassidy and his allies have bombarded Letlow with ads that focus on an unearthed 2020 video from when she was applying to lead the University of Louisiana at Monroe. In the video, Letlow speaks positively about diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that are now deeply unpopular with Republicans.

At last week’s debate with Fleming, Letlow said she “saw firsthand how the left completely hijacked” DEI and emphasized her votes against it once she got to Congress.

Fleming and Letlow go back and forth

Fleming has sought to cast doubt on the genuineness of Trump’s endorsement of Letlow. He claims Letlow allies, including Gov. Jeff Landry, blocked him from making his case to Trump — and when he finally got through to Trump, the president was impressed with him but had already backed Letlow. Letlow, during last week’s debate, said Fleming must not have been that familiar to Trump if it took that long to reach him.

“I don’t think Fleming’s a bad guy. I think he’s a good conservative,” said Ray Griffin, a longtime member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee who says he supports Letlow. But Fleming’s push to appear close to Trump, Griffin added, “really irks me.”

Fleming sought last week to win an endorsement from the Louisiana GOP, submitting what he said were the required number of signatures from the Republican State Central Committee to force a vote. But, according to his campaign, he was told he was one signature short for several reasons, including that four members had rescinded their endorsements. Fleming blamed Landry’s influence in social media posts.

Louisiana GOP Chairman Derek Babcock confirmed to CNN that Fleming came up short due in part to rescinded endorsements.

One of Fleming’s most frequent jabs at Letlow involves carbon capture and sequestration, the emission-storage technology that has proven controversial in rural Louisiana. Fleming has pitched himself as the strongest opponent of the projects, while claiming Letlow’s fiancé advocates for them in his job. Letlow called that a “low blow” during their debate.

Landry’s office did not respond to a request for comment. But the governor has criticized Fleming on his social media, accusing him of flip-flopping on carbon capture projects and questioning whether he can be trusted on other issues, including support for Trump.

Fleming stands by one comment that’s been the subject of Letlow campaign attacks.

A Letlow ad says Fleming has called Trump “reprehensible,” a reference to a 2016 tweet where Fleming used that word to describe Trump’s lewd comments in the leaked “Access Hollywood” recording.

“I don’t care who says it, that is a reprehensible comment,” Fleming told CNN recently. He later added, “But that doesn’t change my support for President Trump. I support him as a person; I support him as a president.”

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