Donald Trump stands with Julia Letlow during the congressional ball at the White House on 11 December 2025. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Louisiana congresswoman is challenging Cassidy, who voted to convict the US president after 2021 Capitol attack
Louisiana congresswoman Julia Letlow officially announced her bid for Senate on Tuesday after receiving a complete and total social media endorsement from Donald Trump over the weekend .
Letlow, a Republican, is issuing a primary challenge to two-term GOP incumbent Bill Cassidy, a former physician who once voted to convict the president of inciting an insurrection during his second impeachment trial after the 2021 Capitol riots.
I know Julia well, have seen her tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and she is a TOTAL WINNER!, the president wrote on Truth Social, after hearing that Letlow was considering entering the Louisiana Senate race. RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!
Cassidy, who sits on the Senate health committee has sought to avoid the presidents ire last year by casting the deciding vote to confirm health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr despite numerous misgivings about Kennedys past comments undermining the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
He has since pushed back against Kennedys handling of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including at a bipartisan committee hearing in September when the senator accused the health secretary of effectively denying people the vaccine, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved new Covid-19 inoculations but placed restrictions on who would be able to access them.
In a video announcement on Tuesday, explaining her decision to enter the race, Letlow said that in a state as conservative as ours [Louisiana], we shouldnt have to wonder how our senator will vote when the pressure is on.
The lawmaker, who won a 2021 special election after her husband, Luke Letlow, died from complications of Covid-19 five days before he was set to be sworn into office, thanked Donald Trump for his backing and praised his policy agenda.
Our president is keeping his promises, she said. 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 to focus on woke ideology instead of teaching.
In response to Letlows announcement, Cassidy said that he had heard from the congresswoman Tuesday morning C when she called him to say she was running for office. She said she respected me and that I had done a good job. I will continue to do a good job when I win re-election. I am a conservative who wakes up every morning thinking about how to make Louisiana and the United States a better place to live, Cassidy said in a statement.
The timing of a potential Cassidy-Letlow electoral showdown is notable. In 2024, Louisiana lawmakers approved a shift to a closed party primary system from an open C or jungle C system for certain elected positions, including the states US Senate seats.
Under an open primary, two candidates from the same party can face each other in a runoff if no one receives more than 50% of the vote in the primary. By comparison, the new system all but ensures each of the major parties has a candidate in the runoff. In his case, Cassidy could only qualify for the runoff if Republican voters vault him to victory in his primary, when the old system would have allowed him to make the runoff even if he finished second to a Republican in a primary in which voters of all affiliations could participate.
路易斯安那州女国会议员正挑战卡西迪，后者曾在2021年国会大厦骚乱后投票判定美国总统有罪
路易斯安那州女议员朱莉娅·莱特洛于周二正式宣布竞选参议员，此前她在上周末获得了唐纳德·特朗普在社交媒体上的“完全且彻底”的背书。
共和党人莱特洛正对已连任两届的共和党现任议员比尔·卡西迪发起初选挑战。卡西迪曾是一名医生，在2021年国会大厦骚乱后举行的第二次弹劾审判中，他投票支持判定总统煽动叛乱罪名成立。
总统在Truth Social上发文称："我非常了解朱莉娅（Julia），见证过她在最高难度挑战中的表现，她是个绝对的赢家！"此前他听闻莱特洛（Letlow）正考虑参加路易斯安那州参议员竞选。文末还激情呼吁："冲啊，朱莉娅，冲啊！！！"
参议院卫生委员会成员卡西迪去年为避免触怒总统，投下了确认小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪（Robert F. Kennedy Jr.）担任卫生部长一职的关键一票，尽管他对肯尼迪过往质疑疫苗安全性和有效性的言论存在诸多顾虑。
此后，他对肯尼迪（Kennedy）领导卫生与公众服务部（HHS）的方式提出了质疑。在9月的一次两党委员会听证会上，这位参议员指责卫生部长“变相剥夺民众接种疫苗的权利”——此前美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）虽批准了新型新冠疫苗的接种，但对适用人群设置了限制。
周二，莱特洛在一段宣布参选的视频中解释其决定时表示："在路易斯安那这样保守的州，我们本不该在压力来临时还要担忧参议员的投票立场。"
这位议员在2021年的特别选举中获胜，她的丈夫卢克·莱特洛（Luke Letlow）在宣誓就职前五天因新冠肺炎并发症去世。她随后对唐纳德·特朗普的支持表示感谢，并称赞了他的政策议程。
“我们的总统正在兑现他的承诺，”她说道。“我曾与特朗普总统并肩奋斗，将美国利益置于首位——捍卫父母权益、巩固边境安全、支持执法部门、清除助长通胀的浪费欺诈与滥用行为，并致力于改革教育体系，使其摆脱‘觉醒意识形态’的干扰，回归教学本质。”
针对莱特洛的声明，卡西迪回应称，他已于周二早上接到这位女议员的电话，告知其将竞选公职。"她表示尊重我，并肯定了我的工作表现。若成功连任，我将继续恪尽职守。作为一名保守派人士，我每日晨起所思所想，皆是如何让路易斯安那州乃至全美成为更宜居之地。"卡西迪在声明中如是说。
卡西迪与莱特洛可能展开的选举对决时机值得关注。2024年，路易斯安那州立法者批准将部分选举职位（包括该州美国参议院席位）的初选制度从开放式（或称“丛林”式）改为封闭式党内初选制度。
在开放式初选制度下，如果初选中无人得票率超过50%，则同一政党的两名候选人可能进入决选。相比之下，新制度几乎确保各大政党均有一名候选人进入决选。以卡西迪为例，他只有在共和党选民支持下赢得初选才能获得决选资格；而旧制度下，即使他在初选中得票数仅次于另一名共和党人（且初选允许所有党派选民参与），他仍可进入决选。
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