President Donald Trump preemptively endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow to run in Louisiana for Senate against incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy, even after Senate Majority Leader John Thune had urged Trump to back Cassidy.
Trump called Thune on Friday and told him he was leaning towards endorsing Letlow, who has not yet announced a run, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Thune tried to convince Trump to support Cassidy, emphasizing that Republicans can’t afford to lose another vote — whether on a future reconciliation bill, a replacement for a Federal Reserve chair, a potential vote on a health care bill and much more. Thune also pointed out that Cassidy has been loyal to Trump this Congress.
The New York Times first reported on the call.
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But Trump is still holding a grudge against Cassidy for voting to convict Trump when he was impeached following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Cassidy had been trying for months to get back into Trump’s good graces. He advanced Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., though he’s remained critical of the secretary and his stances on vaccines.
But it didn’t work.
“RUN JULIA RUN!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Should she decide to enter this Race, Julia Letlow has my Complete and Total Endorsement,” he added.
Letlow responded Saturday night all but confirming she was planning to launch a campaign, saying she was “honored to have President Trump’s endorsement and trust.”
“My mission is clear: to ensure the nation our children inherit is safer and stronger,” she wrote. “This United States Senate seat belongs to the people of Louisiana, because we deserve conservative leadership that will not waver.”
Letlow first came to Congress in 2021, running in a special election to fill her late husband’s seat after he died before taking office. More recently, NOTUS found that she failed to disclose more than 200 stock trades on time, which her office blamed on her financial advisers.
It’s unclear when or if Letlow will officially announce but there has already been an ad filmed for a potential Senate campaign, according to another source familiar with the situation.
Cassidy also responded in his own post on X, saying he is “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.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
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