President Donald Trump just finished the job in Louisiana.
First, he successfully ousted Sen. Bill Cassidy — a longtime rival who voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges — last month. Then on Saturday, Trump got his preferred pick, Rep. Julia Letlow, over the finish line in the runoff to replace the senator.
It was a return to form after several recent misses in primaries, with Trump’s endorsed candidates going down in Iowa and Georgia and after the Republican he initially endorsed in South Carolina flopped. Saturday’s result reaffirms his grip on the Republican party: With Trump’s backing, Letlow overcame a late surge from rival John Fleming, the hardline conservative state treasurer who was also trying to rally the MAGA base behind him.
Letlow’s win sends another Trump ally to Washington, continuing the MAGA takeover of the party, and shows the continuing power of Trump’s blessing that lifts candidates even when others have conservative credentials of their own. It also bolsters the power of GOP Gov. Jeff Landry, whose steadfast support of Letlow was also crucial to her victory.
This primary was the latest test of an emerging question that will help shape the future of the GOP: How powerful is Trump’s endorsement against opponents who are also MAGA acolytes?
Unlike in primaries pitting MAGA against the establishment or against the president’s enemies — which MAGA is clearly winning — several contests this year have involved multiple candidates all seeking to run in the America First lane. In Louisiana and Alabama, Trump’s endorsees won, though both Letlow and Rep. Barry Moore were given a major run for their money by fellow pro-Trump candidates. But in a pair of governor’s contests, Rick Jackson’s billions helped him clinch the nomination in Georgia and Zach Lahn pulled off a surprise upset in Iowa, as both bear-hugged the president.
Fleming, a House Freedom caucus founder and former White House aide, ran as an unabashed Trump ally and spent the campaign arguing he represented MAGA’s ideological roots. He tried to cast Letlow as the establishment pick powered by elected officials rather than grassroots conservatives.
But Republican primary voters ultimately sided with the candidate carrying Trump’s seal of approval.
“Tonight’s runoff proves one indisputable fact: Donald Trump’s endorsement remains the apex predator of Republican politics,” said Louisiana GOP strategist Lionel Rainey. “Masterclass in raw electoral power.”
In one of the country’s reddest states, Letlow now enters the general as the overwhelming favorite to win in November. She’s up against Jamie Davis, a farmer, who won the Democratic runoff on Saturday.
Letlow’s likely ascent to the Senate marks a rapid rise in Louisiana politics: She won a special election to the House in 2021 to fill the seat of her husband, who died from Covid in 2020 just days before being sworn in. She jumped into the Senate race after Trump publicly endorsed her.
“President Trump, thank you for encouraging me to get into this race, thank you for your endorsement, Louisiana loves you,” Letlow said in her victory speech Saturday night.
Yet Trump’s endorsement of Letlow was not quite a knock-out punch. In the May primary, Cassidy, a top MAGA target, received less than 25 percent of the vote, and Letlow finished far ahead of the others — but she did not get enough to reach 50 percent support to avoid a runoff.
In the Saturday runoff, Letlow ran hard on Trump’s endorsement but Fleming also gained significant ground since his second-place finish in the first round of voting, and finished just 14 points behind Letlow, with nearly all the votes counted.
“Yes I love the heat of battle. I love the combat,” Fleming told supporters in his concession speech. “But it makes us stronger. It really makes us better.”
Letlow, who hails from north Louisiana, benefitted from outside national groups spending on her behalf, including the official political arm of the Make American Healthy Again movement, which pledged $1 million to boost her campaign.
Her victory is a sigh of relief for Landry, who invested tremendous political capital in getting her to the Senate, sometimes to a degree that frustrated fellow Republicans. Landry pressured donors to open their wallets for her campaign, and a super PAC aligned with the governor spent about $6 million on her behalf, mostly toward assailing Fleming with attacks about his stances on carbon capture and the border.
It’s unclear whether Landry will face a serious primary challenger when he’s up for reelection next year, but a Letlow loss would have made him more vulnerable to intraparty criticisms and skepticism about his political strength.
Some Louisiana Republicans immediately speculated that Fleming may now consider running against Landry. One Louisiana Republican, who was granted anonymity to speak freely about party dynamics, called it “payback.”
Landry, in a statement, congratulated Letlow “on her decisive victory,” and said the representative ran “an incredible race fueled by the support of President Donald J. Trump and hardworking Louisianians across our state.”
