Ousted in Louisiana Primary, Cassidy Vows Independence From Trump in Final Months as Senator

Senator Bill Cassidy, who placed third in a Republican primary for another term in the Senate on Saturday, is promising to be an independent voice for Louisiana during his final seven months in the chamber. As the chairman of the committee that oversees public health issues, Dr. Cassidy will have a great deal of influence over the fate of President Trump’s nominees for key roles. Dr. Cassidy was targeted by Mr. Trump last year after the two-term Louisiana senator grilled the then-nominee for secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., about vaccines. Dr. Cassidy eventually voted to confirm Mr. Kennedy despite reservations, though that was not enough to get Mr. Trump to forget that the senator had voted to convict him in his 2021 impeachment trial. In January, Mr. Trump endorsed Congresswoman Julia Letlow for Dr. Cassidy’s Senate seat. Dr. Cassidy was already facing a challenge from Louisiana state treasurer John Fleming, who declined to drop out after Mr. Trump made his endorsement. With no candidate receiving a majority of the vote, Ms. Letlow and Dr. Fleming advanced to a runoff election to be held next month. Speaking to supporters at Baton Rouge on Saturday, Dr. Cassidy smiled as he thanked voters for giving him the chance to serve in the Senate. He also threw several barbs at the president.“When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to. But you don’t pout, you don’t whine, you don’t claim the election was stolen, you don’t find a reason, you don’t manufacture some excuse,” Dr. Cassidy said, getting raucous applause from supporters. “You thank the voters for the privilege of representing the state or the country for as long as you’ve had that privilege, and that’s what I’m doing right now.”Dr. Cassidy went further to make clear that insults will do nothing to change how he votes for the rest of the year, adding that anyone who attempts to “control others” is only serving their own interests. “Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans and it is about our Constitution. And it is the welfare of my people and my state and my country and my Constitution to which I am loyal,” Dr. Cassidy said. “And if someone doesn’t understand that and attempts to control others through using the levers of power, they’re about serving themselves. They’re not about serving us. And that person is not qualified to be a leader.”Freed from the considerations of electoral politics, Dr. Cassidy will have the chance to stick his thumb in Mr. Trump’s eye again should he choose to do so. The majority leader, Senator John Thune, can afford to lose only three GOP lawmakers on any party-line measure in the Senate, and Mr. Trump’s revenge could end up backfiring on him. Senator Susan Collins, the moderate from Maine, is already locked in a tight re-election battle. Senator Lisa Murkowski has bucked the president multiple times in the past, and could prove to be a critical swing vote if a Supreme Court nomination comes up. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, like Dr. Cassidy, is very much at risk of losing his primary this month, meaning he too could be liberated to vote against the president without consequence. Nonetheless, Mr. Trump’s campaign of retribution against his political frenemies seems to be working out well for him thus far. Five of the seven Indiana state senators who voted against his redistricting push in the state lost their primaries last month after Mr. Trump endorsed their opponents. Now, with Dr. Cassidy having fallen to a Trump-endorsed challenger, all eyes are turning to Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who will face Republican voters on Tuesday. Mr. Massie has raised millions of dollars for his re-election effort and has won the support of many top conservatives in his state and around the country, including Senator Rand Paul, Tucker Carlson, and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. According to polling, Mr. Massie and his Mr. Trump-endorsed challenger, Ed Gallrein, are neck-and-neck headed into the Tuesday primary vote. In an appearance on ABC News’s “This Week” on Sunday, Mr. Massie said the people coming after him are “desperate.”“You can tell that I’m ahead in the polls and they’re desperate. That’s why they’re sending the secretary of war to my district tomorrow. That’s why the president’s losing sleep and tweeting about this. That’s why AIPAC has dumped another $3 million into my race this weekend,” Mr. Massie said. “It’s because they’re panicked.”

Ousted in Louisiana Primary, Cassidy Vows Independence From Trump in Final Months as Senator

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