Three days after President Donald Trump dropped a political bomb in the Louisiana Senate race by backing Republican Rep. Julia Letlow over incumbent GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, Letlow announced her campaign.
Republican sources say that Letlow announced her candidacy at a private business breakfast in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday morning.
And in a social media post and video that shortly followed, Letlow emphasized that “Louisiana deserves a conservative Senator who will not waver. I am honored to have President Trump’s endorsement and trust.”
Trump’s support for Letlow, who was elected in 2021 after her husband Luke died from COVID just before she took office in the House, is a big blow to Cassidy, a doctor and chair of the powerful Senate Health committee who is running for a third six-year term in the strongly Republican state.
“Congresswoman Letlow called me this morning to say she was running. She said she respected me and that I had done a good job,” Cassidy said in a statement after Letlow’s announcement. “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.”
Trump’s support for Cassidy’s opponent is a big problem for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who is supporting Cassidy and worked with him last week in Louisiana.
On Saturday night, Trump changed the already crowded GOP Senate primary in Louisiana. He posted on social media that he would support Letlow if she ran for Senate.
“Should she decide to enter this RACE,” Trump wrote on social media, “Julia Letlow has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!”
Letlow hinted at launching a Senate run following Trump’s post on X, writing, “My mission is clear: to ensure the nation our children inherit is safer and stronger. This United States Senate seat belongs to the people of Louisiana, because we deserve conservative leadership that will not waver.”
For months, people wondered if Letlow was thinking about running for the Senate. A Republican source told Fox News that the congresswoman, who represents a district that includes parts of central and northeastern Louisiana, had said she wouldn’t run against Cassidy without Trump’s support.
A different Republican source told Fox News that Trump had called Thune on Friday to let the Senate’s top Republican know about the Letlow endorsement.
Thune still backs Cassidy, who was also backed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is the campaign arm of the Senate GOP.
The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), which is the biggest super PAC backing Senate Republicans and is in line with Thune, is not taking sides in Louisiana.
“The mission of the Senate Leadership Fund is to preserve and expand the Republican Senate majority. Anything that distracts from our efforts to beat Democrats in November is unhelpful,” SLF Executive Director Alex Latchum wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Punchbowl News was the first to say that SLF would not be running in the Louisiana GOP primary.
Cassidy, who is 68 years old, said again over the weekend that he is staying in the race.
“I’m proudly running for re-election as a principled conservative who gets things done for the people of Louisiana,” Cassidy wrote on social media following Trump’s bombshell. “If Congresswoman Letlow decides to run, I am confident I will win.”
Cassidy had almost $10 million in his campaign funds at the end of October, after his last fundraising filing. Letlow, on the other hand, had almost $2.3 million in cash on hand. But now that Letlow has started her Senate campaign, a lot of campaign money will probably come in.
The senator voted to convict Trump in the Senate impeachment trial after Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Early last year, the senator backed Trump’s controversial cabinet nominees, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for Health Secretary.