Bill Cassidy is already fending off attacks from a 2026 primary challenger who says the senator is not sufficiently pro-Trump. His votes on Donald Trump’s nominees will be the first test of how he handles them.
Former Rep. John Fleming, Cassidy’s most prominent challenger, told NOTUS he is running ads urging the senator to confirm Trump’s cabinet picks. Cassidy will play an important role in scrutinizing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the potential head of the Department of Health and Human Services. With confirmation hearings set to begin soon, the senator has refused to say whether or not he’ll support the controversial Trump pick.
“I think for nominees, throughout my Senate career, it’s been one step at a time,” Cassidy, who is a medical doctor, told reporters last week after what he called a “good conversation” with Kennedy.
Cassidy rarely diverged from Trump during his first term. But he earned the ire of the former president and his allies when he voted to convict Trump in the 2021 impeachment trial and criticized him after his presidency.
Fleming, a former Trump administration official, told NOTUS that vote was part of why he announced a bid for the seat.
“I’m going up against an unpopular incumbent in the same party, primarily because he voted against President Trump,” Fleming said.
“But it’s far deeper than that,” he continued. “He’s made all kind of negative statements about Trump: ‘Trump should drop out,’ ‘Trump can’t win,’ all of those kind of things. But even beyond that, he supported a lot of legislation that goes against what I think Louisiana values are.”
Trump criticized Cassidy directly last April. “One of the worst Senators in the United States Senate is, without question, Bill Cassidy, A TOTAL FLAKE, Republican though he may be,” Trump wrote.
Cassidy has not formally announced that he’s running for reelection. But his campaign told NOTUS that he is and pointed to his fundraising numbers — $5.8 million cash on hand at the end of September last year — as evidence that he’s building up for a fight.
More high-profile opponents could join the race. Rep. Clay Higgins is another potential challenger who has not declared a run but has often been mentioned as a Trump ally who might try to unseat Cassidy, along with state Sen. Blake Miguez.
Cassidy says that he stands with Trump and is ready to help move the president-elect’s agenda. “I commit to working with President Trump if he is the next president — and it appears he is going to be — to make things better for all,” Cassidy said in a statement last summer after meeting with Trump. During Trump’s first term, Cassidy voted in favor of Trump’s position 94% of the time, according to a 538 analysis.
When asked by NOTUS if he considers himself a “Trump Republican,” Cassidy said: “If you mean I’m pro-America, ‘Make America Great Again,’ yeah, of course.”
Cassidy’s Senate office and campaign office each referred NOTUS to his past comments on nominations. The senator previously said he wanted to make his “own impressions … before making an announcement about it as if I’m supporting one or not supporting the other.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee will throw its weight behind Cassidy. A source close to the NRSC told NOTUS the committee will maintain its historical policy of backing incumbents.
The state Republican Party may be less likely to support Cassidy after censuring him for his vote to impeach in 2021. The party did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Lionel Rainey, a political strategist in Louisiana who’s worked on campaigns around the country, told NOTUS that he still sees Cassidy as the front-runner, but that could change depending on Trump’s response to Cassidy in the next two years. The confirmation votes “are going to play a big role,” he said.
“He and his team are going to have to make a strategic decision of how he votes,” Rainey said. “Because, I think regardless of the way he votes, it’s going to have an impact on his relationship with the president. You know, if he’s a thorn to the side, I’d argue it would hurt him.”
Cassidy may have the best combination of broad appeal, fundraising and name recognition against his challengers, but it’s going to be far from a shoo-in, Rainey said.
“I put him at the front-runner, but I put him at the front-runner at 51%,” Rainey said. “Because there’s so many intangibles that are out there [that] can turn it on a dime, right? And the president is one of those.”
—
Helen Huiskes is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.