By:Piper Hutchinson | Louisiana Illuminator
President Donald Trump’s surprise endorsement of U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow in her bid to unseat fellow Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy has set up a heated showdown, and the pair did not disappoint Friday as they traded barbs on the final day of candidate qualifying for the May 16 party primaries.
Cassidy, who has held the seat since 2015, has come under heat from the conservative wing of the party since his vote to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. A slew of Cassidy supporters accompanied the senator to the State Archives where he signed up for reelection, while a video billboard truck drove around the building with a display of “Liberal Julia Letlow,” showing her alongside former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and signs that read “Black lives matter” and “defund the police.”
Though Cassidy has attempted to paint Letlow as a liberal, conservatives are coalescing around her. In addition to backing from the president, Letlow has earned support from Gov. Jeff Landry, according to the Shreveport Times. Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta, who had announced last year he would run against Cassidy, did not qualify and endorsed Letlow instead, according to WVLA-TV.
Letlow appeared and qualified two hours before Cassidy and company arrived, but the billboard truck was already making its rounds when she was at the State Archives.
“I wish that we all could run positive campaigns on our records and our vision and our dreams for Louisiana …” Letlow told reporters. “But you know, I can tell you this, President Trump would never endorse someone who is not a true America first conservative.”
“And so that should give the people peace of mind when they have to look at these negative, desperate ads,” Letlow said when asked about Cassidy’s attack ads that have aired in the weeks since she announced she would run against him.
Cassidy has sought to cast Letlow, a former administrator at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, as a pro-diversity, equity and inclusion advocate, claiming she held workshops to put “woke” content into the curriculum, joined an anti-racist organization and signed a statement in support of diversity in the wake of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
“That is absolutely false, that I would be a proponent of DEI,” Letlow said. “Do I know it exists on the university campuses? Absolutely, I’m going to do everything I can to fight it.”
Treasurer John Fleming, who worked for Trump during his first administration and qualified for the U.S. Senate race Wednesday, described the president’s endorsement of Letlow as a “scheme” that the governor was behind.
“Jeff Landry has been working on this endorsement over a year,” Fleming told reporters after he qualified. “I’ve heard about it from a number of people.”
The governor rejected Fleming’s claim Thursday, saying he “might not be fit for office.”
Landry’s former chief of staff, Kyle Ruckert, is advising Letlow’s campaign and was seen at the State Archives among her entourage. The governor’s office said earlier this month Ruckert stepped down to chair Protect Louisiana Values, an organization dedicated to Landry’s agenda.
Two more Democrats qualified Friday for the Senate race: Nick Albares, a New Orleans nonprofit executive and former aide to former Gov. John Bel Edwards; and Gary Crockett of New Orleans, who lists experience as a data scientist and political consultant. They join Union Parish farmer Jamie Davis, who qualified Wednesday.
Why are we having party primaries?
What’s different about the 2026 election is the introduction of closed party primaries.
Landry supported legislation in 2024 to close Louisiana’s relatively unusual open “jungle” primaries. They forced candidates of all affiliations to face each other in an initial election, and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party — and assuming no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote — advanced to a runoff the following month.
Louisiana’s new closed primaries apply to seats in Congress and on the Louisiana Supreme Court, Public Service Commission and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. They are supposed to be held in March of each election year, with the majority vote-getter from each party advancing to a fall election. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the primary, a party runoff is held the following month between the top two candidates.
This year’s party primaries were pushed to May back by legislators who hoped the U.S. Supreme Court would offer a ruling in a case on Louisiana’s congressional maps in time to adopt new maps for 2026. The court has not yet ruled in the case.
In states with closed primaries, voters tend to be more polarized than in the general election, meaning a conservative Republican candidate could have a better chance in unseating a more moderate intra-party rival.
Unopposed qualifiers advance
In other notable news on the final day of qualifying, Associate Supreme Court Justices Cade Cole and Jay McCallum, both Republicans, secured reelection without opposition.
U.S. Rep. Troy Carter of New Orleans faces one Democratic Party primary challenger, Renada “Honey” Collins of New Orleans. He will be heavily favored to keep his 2nd Congressional District seat after the May 16 election because no Republican entered the race.
Incumbent U.S. Reps. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, and Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette, did not draw primary opponents from their respective parties, meaning they advanced directly to the Nov. 3 general election.
The same situation applies to Democrat Connie Norris, a retired Slidell teacher running for the Public Service Commission in District 1, and Angela Hershey, a high school teacher from Madisonville, seeking the District 1 seat for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Michael Hollis qualified for the BESE District 1 seat on the Republican side to run for the seat vacated by his brother, Paul Hollis, the new U.S. Mint director. He will face fellow Republicans Joseph Cao and Ellie Schroder.
John Young, the former president of Jefferson Parish, also signed up in the District 1 race for the Public Service Commission.
Qualified candidates for the May 16 primaries
incumbents are in bold
U.S. Senate
- Democrat: Nick Albares, New Orleans; Gary Crockett, New Orleans; Jamie Davis, Ferriday
- Republican: U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, Baton Rouge; Treasurer John Fleming, Minden; U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, Baton Rouge; Mark Spencer, Belle Chasse
1st Congressional District
- Democrat: Lauren Jewett, Metairie; Jim Long, Metairie
- Republican: Randall Arrington, Ponchatoula; U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Jefferson
2nd Congressional District
- Democrat: U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, New Orleans; Renada “Honey” Collins, New Orleans
3rd Congressional District
- Democrat: John Day, Lake Charles; Tia LeBrun, Sulphur; Caleb Walker, Lafayette
- Republican: U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, Lafayette
4th Congressional District
- Democrat: Conrad Cable, Farmerville; Matt Gromlich, Greenwood
- Republican: U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Benton; Joshua Morott, Vernon Parish; Mike Nichols, Pitkin
5th Congressional District
- Democrat: Jessee Fleenor, Loranger; Larry Foy, Winnsboro; Lindsay “Rubia” Garcia, Walker; Dan McKay, Bunkie; Tania Nyman
- Republican: Misti Cordell, Wes Monroe; state Sen. Rick Edmonds, Baton Rouge, Austin Magee, Franklinton; Michael Mebruer, St. Francisville; state Sen. Blake Miguez, New Iberia; Sammy Wyatt, Denham Springs
6th Congressional District
- Democrat: U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, Baton Rouge
- Republican: Monique Appeaning, St. George; Larry Davis, Denham Springs; Chris Johnson, Greenwell Springs; Peter Williams, Lettsworth
Louisiana Supreme Court, 1st District
- Republican: Judge Billy Burris, Franklinton; Judge Blair Downing Edwards, Hammond
Public Service Commission, District 1
- Democrat: Connie Norris, Slidell
- Republican: Wallace “Wayne” Cooper II, Robert; state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, New Orleans; “Big John” Mason, Metairie; state Rep. Mark Wright, Covington; John Young, Metairie
Public Service Commission, District 5
- Democrat: James Green, Shreveport; Austin Lawsom, Bossier City
- Republican: John Atkins, Shreveport; Aiden Joyner; West Monroe
Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, District 1
Republican: Joseph Cao, Harvey; Michael Hollis, New Orleans; Ellie Schroder, Abita Springs
Democrat: Angela Hershey, Madisonville