Trump Backs Primary Challenge To GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON ― Donald Trump inspired a main problem in opposition to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) regardless of Cassidy’s greatest efforts to ingratiate himself to the president, together with offering the massively consequential vote final yr to verify Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Trump’s well being secretary.

In a Truth Social submit on Saturday, Trump urged Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) to run for the seat held by Cassidy, a medical physician who voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial after the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol in 2021.

“Should she decide to enter this Race, Julia Letlow has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!” Trump wrote within the submit.

Letlow mentioned she was “honored” to have Trump’s endorsement however didn’t reveal her plans to run within the February main. The three-term congresswoman indicated in current weeks that help from the president would assist tip the scales in favor of difficult Cassidy, in accordance with NBC News.

“My mission is clear: to ensure the nation our children inherit is safer and stronger,” Letlow mentioned in a press release. “This United States Senate seat belongs to the people of Louisiana, because we deserve conservative leadership that will not waver.”

Cassidy, in the meantime, vowed to prevail even when Letlow decides to leap in.

“I’m proudly running for re-election as a principled conservative who gets things done for the people of Louisiana,” the senator mentioned in a press release. “If Congresswoman Letlow decides to run I am confident I will win.”

But Trump’s endorsement of Letlow is a big blow to the senator, who has been intently centered on repairing his relationship with Trump following the Jan. 6 impeachment trial. Cassidy supplied the pivotal vote to verify RFK Jr. realizing full nicely that he opposed vaccine science. As chairman of the Senate’s well being committee, which has oversight of RFK Jr.’s division, Cassidy has completed little since then to push again on the well being secretary’s large adjustments to federal vaccine tips which have deeply alarmed well being consultants, and Cassidy himself.

Trump’s endorsement of Letlow can be one other headache for Senate GOP leaders, who’re making an attempt to keep away from messy and costly primaries across the nation in an effort to preserve management of the Senate subsequent yr. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-La.) appeared with Cassidy at an occasion in Baton Rouge to tout the GOP’s tax cuts on Friday, only a day earlier than Trump’s announcement.