Rep. Julia Letlow has secured Louisiana’s Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, positioning herself as a staunchly pro-Donald Trump alternative to Sen. Bill Cassidy, whom Trump has repeatedly dismissed as a “RINO.”
Letlow, who had Trump’s endorsement, prevailed over state Treasurer John Fleming in a runoff after both candidates finished ahead of Cassidy in the May 16 GOP primary.
Trump threw his support behind Letlow as part of a broader push to unseat Cassidy, who angered the former president’s allies by voting to convict him during his 2021 impeachment trial.
A former college administrator and outspoken Trump supporter, Letlow has represented Louisiana in the House since 2021.
Her rise to Congress came after a family tragedy: her husband, Luke Letlow, died from complications related to COVID-19 shortly after winning election to the House in 2020, before he could be sworn in.
If she wins in the fall, Letlow would become Louisiana’s first female Republican senator, a milestone in a state where the GOP holds a strong political advantage.
Throughout the campaign, Letlow has pledged to work closely with Trump and support his agenda in Washington.
She first entered the House in 2021 through a special election to fill the seat her late husband had won but never had the chance to occupy.
Congresswoman Julia Letlow (pictured right) won Louisiana’s Republican nomination for Senate with support from Donald Trump (pictured left)
Letlow, who was endorsed by Trump, defeated state Treasurer John Fleming in a runoff after the two finished ahead of Cassidy in the GOP primary May 16
She received Trump’s backing before entering the primary race in January.
She finished first in the primary with nearly 45 percent of the vote, compared with about 28 percent for Fleming and nearly 25 percent for Cassidy.
‘We have a chance to send a clear message that Louisiana stands with President Trump,’ Letlow said Thursday in an online rally with the president.
‘He endorsed me because he knows I will stand with him.’
For some, Trump’s endorsement was all that mattered.
‘Trump’s lady all the way,’ said Barbara Dufrene, 67, of Marrero. She added that she knew little about Letlow but was counting on the president to lower her healthcare costs and increase her social safety net.
‘I always vote whatever Trump wants.’
Letlow’s success on May 16, campaign spending on her behalf and support from prominent Republicans had her well positioned in the runoff.
The president backed Letlow in an effort to oust Bill Cassidy (pictured), who voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges in 2021
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She was also endorsed by Governor Jeff Landry, who consulted with Trump last year about her running for Senate, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
Last month Letlow won in parishes from the state’s rural north to the New Orleans area in the southeast.
She carried six of the 13 parishes that Fleming formerly represented in the US House, including Caddo Parish, which includes Shreveport.
Fleming, a founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus while in Congress, later worked in Trump’s first administration.
He reminded voters that he did not resign after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
He directed his appeals to those who identify most closely with the president’s ‘Make America Great Again’ movement, saying his voting record is more conservative than Letlow’s. His campaign ads describe him as MAGA ‘long before it was cool.’
Fleming told voters he was blocked from reaching Trump to seek his endorsement by White House allies of Landry. Fleming said he finally got on the phone with Trump and reminded the president who he was.
‘I said nobody has been more loyal to you than me,’ Fleming recounted during a June campaign stop. ‘He said, ‘You’re fantastic! Why didn’t you call?’
The two campaigns spent comparably on advertising, roughly $1 million each, since the May 16 primary.
But a super PAC that supports Letlow led all spending, accounting for $4.1 million in the past six weeks, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
Fleming has ads highlighting Letlow’s previous public support for diversity, equity and inclusion policy, which Trump has tried to eliminate.
Letlow, a former college administrator, said she supported DEI while interviewing for the position of president of the University of Louisiana-Monroe in 2020, but said this year she opposes it.
Fleming reposted an AI-generated video on the social platform X this month that purported to show Letlow saying she supported DEI because she ‘didn’t know any better.’
The fake image of Letlow also referenced her husband, who died from complications of COVID-19.
Fleming said he did not create the video ‘but it’s getting passed around Louisiana for a reason.’
Letlow condemned the sharing of the video as “disgraceful and indefensible,” chiefly for its mention of her husband.
Letlow emphasized key priorities for social conservatives, notably her support for national legislation barring transgender women and girls from competing in school sports.
Fleming staked much of his campaign on opposition to carbon capture and sequestration, the process for injecting carbon dioxide waste underground to reduce industrial pollution.
The technology’s build-out, included planned pipelines, has sparked backlash in rural Louisiana communities and divided the state GOP.
Fleming said such projects infringe on private property rights and federal government subsidies for the technology are wasteful.
In the Democratic primary, Jamie Davis, a northeast Louisiana crop farmer, defeated Gary Crockett, a Navy veteran and business executive. Both promoted addressing the cost of living and protecting social safety nets.
The state is heavily Republican. Trump carried Louisiana by 22 percentage points in 2024.
