Trump-Endorsed Republican Announces Challenge to Rebel Senator

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) announced that she would mount a primary challenge against Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on Tuesday, just a few days after President Donald Trump announced that he was preemptively endorsing the former.

“Highly Respected America First Congresswoman, Julia Letlow, of the wonderful State of Louisiana, is a Great Star, has been from the very beginning, and only gets better! I am hearing that Julia is considering launching her Campaign for the United States Senate in Louisiana, a place I love and WON BIG, six times, including Primaries, in 2016, 2020, and 2024!” wrote Trump in a Saturday evening Truth Social post. “I know Julia well, have seen her tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and she is a TOTAL WINNER!”

“Should she decide to enter this Race, Julia Letlow has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!” he added.

On Tuesday, Letlow obliged the president in a video announcement in which she professed to be “grateful for the courageous leadership of our president.”

“I’ve witnessed firsthand how President Trump is taking on the swamp and delivering for the American people. Our president is keeping his promises. I have fought alongside President Trump to put America first. Standing up for our parents, securing our borders, supporting law enforcement, rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse that drives up inflation, and fighting to fix an education system too focused on woke ideology instead of teaching,” she continued. “A state as conservative as ours? We shouldn’t have to wonder how our senator will vote when the pressure’s on. Louisiana deserves conservative champions — leaders who will not flinch. This Senate seat belongs to you, the people of Louisiana, and I will never forget that.”

Cassidy responded to Trump’s post over the weekend be defiantly saying that he was “proudly running for re-election as a principled conservative who gets things done for the people of Louisiana.”

“If Congresswoman Letlow decides to run I am confident I will win,” he added.

Cassidy has long been one of the Senate GOP caucus’s more Trump-skeptical members, even voting to convict him during the impeachment trial that took place after the January 6 Capitol riot. This term, Cassidy has emerged as a frequent critic of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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