President Donald Trump encouraged a Republican representative in Louisiana on Saturday night to challenge Sen. Bill Cassidy (R), an occasional critic who voted to convict him in his second impeachment trial.
“Should she decide to enter this Race, Julia Letlow has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Letlow, who became Louisiana’s first Republican woman elected to Congress in 2021 and has not formally announced a Senate run, represents the state’s Fifth Congressional District — a seat previously won by her husband, Luke Letlow, who died of complications from covid-19 in 2020 days before he was set to take office.
“I’m honored to have President Trump’s endorsement and trust,” Letlow said on social media in response to his endorsement. “My mission is clear: to ensure the nation our children inherit is safer and stronger.”
Two weeks after her husband’s death, Letlow announced her bid to run in a special election, and she received public backing from Trump for that race.
Cassidy — a member of Congress since 2009 and chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions — has sometimes been at odds with the president’s base over his vote to convict Trump on an impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. He was one of seven Republican senators to do so.
“I’m proudly running for reelection as a principled conservative who gets things done for the people of Louisiana,” Cassidy wrote on social media Saturday. “If Congresswoman Letlow decides to run I am confident I will win.”
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